Five years after 2016 flood in Lafayette Parish, ‘Just a matter of time ’til we flood again’ | News – New Orleans, Louisiana

Five years ago, on this day, hundreds of Lafayette parishioners stripped seat locks, pulled up sticky carpets, carried ruined furniture to the porch, and began recovery from a two-day storm in some areas. It rained 20 inches on the carpet.

In Youngsville alone, 600 homes were flooded and one of the worst natural disasters in the area, with hundreds of other homes scattered throughout the Lafayette parish.

The August 12-13, 2016 flood, called the 500-year flood, was caused by a stagnant system at the summit of Louisiana. Some homes in the Highland Ridge district of Youngsville have taken 20-inch water columns.

Stafford Burnett’s house in the Delmar South district, an unincorporated area off Johnston Street south of Acadiana Mall, was flooded twice during its infamous weekend, once on Friday, August 12th, and then inch of water. Was flooded the next day with another 1-inch water column. Water.

Still, it meant pulling up the pine wood floor, tearing the cabinets, replacing seat locks up to 4 feet, and finding another place to live for months. Total cost: $ 172,000.

“We were flooded five years ago and then again six to eight months later,” Burnett said on Saturday. “It’s only a matter of time before we are flooded again.”

He and his wife have had a system since the 2016 floods began to rain heavily.

“We pull up the floor covering. Whatever can be damaged in the floor or garage,” Burnett said. “I sit on the driveway and yell at people driving in the water.”

They have done this 6-7 times in the last 5 years.

A year after the flood, then Mayor Joel Robido lamented the lack of funds to clean the 600-mile coolie and other drainage channels in the parish. Some people weren’t cleaned for years or even decades because the parish didn’t have the money.

In 2017, voters helped by redistributing part of the property tax to wastewater and transferring $ 9 million from the parish public health fund to wastewater. In 2019, voters agreed to receive $ 8 million from the Lafayette Parish Library Fund for use in drainage channels, roads and bridges.

Robideaux’s 2019-20 budget also redirected millions of bond funds from three transport projects proposed in a five-year capital improvement program to fund drainage projects.

On October 9, voters of the Lafayette parish will be asked to renew the 3.58 mil parish property tax, which produces about $ 7.8 million annually for drainage. Includes an increase of 0.24 million due to a decrease in property tax revenue due to revaluation.

Greg Davis Jr., who lives in Derby Heights, a parcel away from the unincorporated Lafayette Parish’s Carmel Drive, is pleased with the work LCG has done since 2016.

“We have never been flooded,” he said on Saturday. “They made some big improvements to drainage.”

According to Davis, the last heavy rain flooded the streets, but not the houses. He said the parish has set up water dams in several areas to contain water.

“I still have what’s in the box,” Davis said. “But after the Flood, things are back as normal as possible.”

Burnett is not very happy. The parish cleaned the ditch in his neighborhood, but Cooley did not. He believes that the culvert under the roads and bridges throughout the parish is too small. He said there are probably other issues that lead to floods, which need to be identified in a comprehensive study.

City council member Nanette Cook, who was present at the previous city council during the 2016 flood, also said a comprehensive drainage survey of the entire parish was needed.

This year’s city and the Parish Council have approved millions of dollars to build regulating reservoirs and regulating reservoirs that help retain water during heavy rains.

However, the city has been sued for the rapid expropriation of assets in at least one retarding basin, and Cook has been suspended. She suggests that cities may need more detailed research and engineering to determine how useful the pond is.

Many residents believe that dredging the Vermilion River, which has not been completely dredged since 1957, will help mitigate floods in cities and parishes, as all rainwater will eventually flow into the river. increase. According to a 2017 Army Corps of Engineers survey, the depth of the river is only 2 feet in some places.

However, a study released in 2020, approved by the Army Corps of Engineers and conducted by the Louisiana Basin Flood Center at Louisiana University Lafayette, found that the cost of the project outweighed the benefits and concerns about harm to the downstream community. I found that it was happening.

The city council has allocated $ 5 million to spots dredging rivers, for example, where Cooley flows into vermilion, which tends to be blocked by silt and debris. In addition to the river dredging spots, other things such as retarding basins could cumulatively mitigate the problem, Cook said.

“I don’t think there is a single silver bullet,” she said.

Ken Ritter became Mayor of Youngsville in January 2015. He remembered the August 2016 tragedy and said it changed him as a leader.

“I remember getting a call that morning before I left home. I arrived at the fire department. I didn’t know if I would arrive at the city hall,” he said on Saturday. “I remember the pain I saw in the inhabitants. At first I was almost helpless about what we could help.”

From that point on, Ritter said he was devoted to improving drainage, preventing the next serious flood, and doing everything possible to alleviate residents’ anxiety every time it rains. rice field.

One of the first things Youngsville did was to tighten restrictions on new developments. This was criticized, sometimes referred to as the kneeling reaction to the once-in-a-lifetime flood. Youngsville also secured a $ 25 million federal hazard mitigation grant and used local funding and public-private partnerships to work locally to expand and improve drainage channels.

“It definitely changed the way we think, act and approve (permit),” Ritter said. “I have never lost the scene of heartache” of 600 residents.