Lafourche Parish President and Public Officials Continue to Address Risk Rating 2.0 Concerns

Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson along with multiple public officials continues to address the Risk Rating 2.0 concerns with FEMA. Chaisson and the officials recently penned a letter on behalf of Lafourche Parish residents.

The letter addressed to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, opened by thanking her for multiple visits to the parish following Hurricane Ida. “During one of those meetings,” the letter states, “I urged you to pause Risk Rating 2.0 and explained the issues that we would see here locally and across the country. I gave you several examples of how this new program was not fair or equitable and how we would see flood insurance premiums increase in most areas of our parish all while your agency’s new flood zone maps show lower elevations. At that meeting you took some notes and said you would get back to me on those specific examples; to date I have not heard back from your office.”

The letter goes on to state that in February, they heard a presentation on Risk Rating 2.0 during the National Association of Counties Legislative Conference from Mr. David Maurstad who is the Associate Administrator for Resilience within FEMA. “During that presentation,” it stated,” I again gave Mr. Maurstad the same examples that I provided to you several months earlier, including the premium increases that we were seeing. His response to those examples was “then you need to check with another agent.” That statement is a true slap in the face for every hardworking person who has paid into the National Flood Insurance Program. It is a federal program, so there is no checking with another agent.” The letter then gives the proof of the statement by sharing a link and saying the quote can be found at minute mark 54:28.

The rest of the letter can be read below:

“In addition, Mr. Maurstad stated that this program has been in development for six years and that there were thousands of public outreach opportunities. I have yet to find a public hearing that was held anywhere near Lafourche Parish on this subject, but yet here we are with a program that has been implemented.

Finally on April 1st, there was a call with FEMA staffers organized by Congressman Graves that several Parish Presidents participated in as the program was going live that day. Every Parish President on that call asked your staff for information that is contained in the Risk Rating 2.0 model. We asked specifically if our levees, whether Corps certified or not, were included in the model. We asked if the millions in drainages infrastructure that was either funded through local tax dollars, state dollars, or federal dollars were included in the model. To every question that was asked, there was never an answer given. Every Parish President was told that your staff would follow up with us individually to address our specific levees or drainage improvements. A month passed and none of us have been reached out to. That leads me to draw two conclusions; either your staff has no clue what is in the model, or they will not tell us. Either way that is grossly unacceptable! We are using a model that could determine whether or not people can continue to live in their homes, and no one can tell us what is in the model?

I would ask that you fully pump the brakes on this program until there are true public hearings and the model and its contents are made public. I look forward to your response to this letter and working to develop a program that is truly fair and equitable.

Sincerely,

Archie Chiasson, III

Parish President

Cc: Senator Bill Cassidy, Senator John Kennedy, Congressman Steve Scalise, Congressman Garret Graves, Tony Robinson