2008-0166
INTRODUCED BY: V.J. ST. PIERRE, JR., PARISH PRESIDENT
RESOLUTION NO.
Title
A resolution requesting and urging the Congress of the United States to appropriate 100% federal funding for one hundred year flood protection for Southeast Louisiana.
Body
WHEREAS, in the aftermath of the flooding and devastation caused by Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the Congress of the United States promised the citizens of Southeast Louisiana Category 3 Hurricane Protection, for which the local citizenry contributed significant cost share funding; and,
WHEREAS, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, before Hurricane Katrina, informed Louisiana that it was protected against a hurricane likely to come no more frequently than once in 200 years; and,
WHEREAS, improvements along the entire Mississippi River system, including its tributaries, and the construction of flood protection reservoirs in states more than 1,000 miles from the Gulf Coast deprived the Mississippi River of enormous amounts of sediment needed to sustain coastal lands in Louisiana; and,
WHEREAS, Southeast Louisiana has played a major role in the shipping and oil and gas industries, benefiting the quality of life and economy of the nation as a whole; and,
WHEREAS, the activities of these industries along Louisiana's coasts and the construction of the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, in conjunction with the engineering of the entire Mississippi River system that provided economic benefit and flood protection hundreds of miles up river from Louisiana, depriving Louisiana of the natural load of sediment, has led directly to the disappearance of 2,100 square miles of Louisiana's coastal lands; and,
WHEREAS, these benefits to the rest of the nation have substantially reduced natural barriers to storm surge and thus enormously increased the vulnerability of Louisiana to hurricanes, far beyond what it would otherwise be; and,
WHEREAS, on August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina devastated Southeast Louisiana by overtopp...
Click here for full text