Never Again

Never Again

Should Be the Lesson of Katrina

In 1953, the North Sea Flood killed over 1,800 people in the Netherlands. In response, the Dutch launched Delta Works, a massive engineering project that uses a network of dams, storm surge barriers, and locks to reduce flood risks to a “never again” standard of once every 10,000 years.

Similarly, after the levee failures in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, we embarked on our own journey to ensure that our region would “never again” face such devastation and loss of life. Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans was founded to solve a problem with local levee board governance. Reforms were passed in the legislature in Baton Rouge, and a Constitutional Amendment was passed with overwhelming support from citizens across the state of Louisiana.

These reforms were designed to ensure that local levee boards were led by professional board members who would be free from political interference. Levee boards were also consolidated into two authorities for each side of the Mississippi River, to ensure coordination across parish lines.

For almost two decades, under three separate governors of both parties, these reforms stood in place as a testament to the vital importance of keeping politics out of protecting the region from floods. Southeast Louisiana was focused on ensuring that we would “never again” suffer such a catastrophic event.

But under the Landry administration, “never again” has devolved into “not right now”. In less than three years, Governor Landry, through a series of seemingly politically motivated maneuvers, has removed all nine members of the Flood Authority - East board (SLPFA-East) and replaced them with new selections. Seven board members have resigned since Landry took office, several under severe pressure from “investigations” and allegations that have never been made public. Many of the board members who resigned expressed opposition to recent changes made at the flood authority.

The new board appears laser-focused, not on flood protection, but on expanding the levee police force. The annual budget for the police force has increased by over 40% in two years and now accounts for more than 22% of the flood authority’s annual budget. Last fall, it was reported that the levee police were starting a special unit trained in SWAT tactics. The new Superintendent of Police earns $208,000 a year, which is nearly twice what his predecessor earned.

Why the focus on building out this police force?

We do not understand how this aligns with the flood authority’s mission to “ensure the physical and operational integrity of the regional flood risk management system”. Our tax dollars, meant to maintain the levees and flood protection system, are increasingly being spent on a mini police force that patrols a small subsection of neighborhoods along the lakefront.

Although our post-Katrina reforms still exist in law, in practice, they have been completely circumvented. We have returned to a board staffed entirely by the governor’s appointees, whose focus has wandered away from the work of flood system maintenance and improvement.

What can YOU, the citizens, do to combat this backwards slide?

Let your Representative and Senator in the state legislature know your concerns. You can look up your elected official using your home address on this website.

CLICK HERE TO FIND YOUR LEGISLATORS

Email your legislator. Tell them that recent events at the Flood Authority East have raised your concerns. Ask that they develop a solution to remove politics from the work of flood protection and STOP funneling more of our flood protection tax dollars to police protection for a few neighborhoods.

Please share this letter with your neighbors and friends and ask them to sign up to receive future emails from Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans. We will be sharing additional details about the events that have led us to this SLOW MOVING EMERGENCY in the days and weeks to come.

NEVER AGAIN!

Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans