Lafourche council does about-face on FEMA flood maps

With the Lafourche Parish Council accepting the Advisory Base Flood Elevations (ABFE) as recommended by FEMA and required by the Louisiana Recovery Authority (LRA), the parish can now receive almost $5 million for rebuilding and recovery efforts.

Tuesday night, the council accepted the ABFE’s by a vote of 7-2, with councilman Mark Atzenhoffer and Tommy Lasseigne voting against.

It was the third time that the flood maps were brought up for vote before the council, after getting voted down the previous two times.

A key reason for the acceptance of the maps was the $3 million that the parish would have missed out on for the recovery.

“President Randolph and the council have made a very smart decision on behalf of the good people of Lafourche Parish,” said LRA board member Chet Morrison, in a released statement. “Their vote ensures we’re going to rebuild safely and also makes a substantial amount of funds available for critical construction projects in our community. We are determined to do this the right way, and protect our communities from being subject to the same kind of damage we saw after Katrina and Rita.”

The parish is now eligible to receive $3 million to get flood-prone homes out of harm’s way, along with making critical infrastructure such as hospitals, police stations and emergency operations centers, more resistant to future storms. Ways of doing this include installing shutters, raising generators and fuel tanks, and using other storm-proofing techniques.

Other funds that the parish will have access to include $948,000 for building recovery projects in the parish and affected municipalities from the LRA’s Long Term Community Recovery Program. An additional $930,000 will be available to the parish to cover their 10 percent match for FEMA’s Public Assistance program.

Atzenhoffer was the biggest critic of the LRA, saying that the organization was in the way of the parish getting the money.

“The federal government wants protection for the money that they’re sending down,” he said. “You know what? If the LRA wouldn’t be there, the money would still come. It’s a simple issue. Tying the funds to the ABFE’s is fine. Forcing a parish to adopt them without the generally accepted process of adoption is wrong.”

Councilman Daniel Lorraine said it would be best to adopt the ABFE’s now, because he anticipates that the FIRM’s will be similar.

“This is just Advisory Base Flood Elevation maps,” he said. “I can almost promise you, when the real maps are going to come in, it’s going to be almost identical. If we wait for the real maps to come in, then all this money that’s available for us may be gone and we may not get any.

“All the federal government wants to do,” added Lorraine, “is protect what they’re giving you. They’re going to give you some money to fix it, but they want you to fix it the right way.”