Home Elevations Set for Louisiana Parishes for Next Year

(TNS) – A program that aims to elevate thousands of homes in southwest Louisiana to heights that would keep them above 100-year flood levels through at least 2075 could begin next May with the first 27 houses.

The 27 homes are included in a pilot program run by the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. They are among 3,462 in Calcasieu, Cameron and Vermilion parishes targeted by the larger elevation plans.

The elevations are part of the federal-state Southwest Coastal Louisiana project, said Brian Lezina, administrator of the authority’s planning and research division, at a Wednesday meeting of the authority’s board in Abbeville. The pilot is aimed at determining the steps necessary to design the home elevations.

The $6.8 billion Southwest Coastal project, authorized by Congress in 2016, includes $1.6 billion for “nonstructural” efforts — the home elevations and 342 non-residential and 157 warehouse floodproofing projects — to protect homes and businesses from flooding. Some of the warehouse projects will include construction of earthen berms.

Homes would be raised high enough to not be flooded by storm surge or rainfall that has a 1 percent chance of occurring through 2075, a so-called 100-year event. That additional elevation takes into account expected higher water levels in the Gulf of Mexico and increased storm intensities caused by global warming.

The project also includes about $5.5 billion for a variety of environmental restoration projects along the Calcasieu River basin.

The nonstructural part of the project recently received a $400 million appropriation by Congress that will pay for another 1,000 home elevations over the next year or so. Inclusion of the remaining 2,435 homes will require additional funding from Congress. The state is required to pay 35% of the cost of the entire project.

Homes must have been included in a list of more than 4,000 structures identified by the Corps as being located in flood-prone areas in the three parishes in 2016.

The homes must be in good enough shape to withstand the elevation process, and the owner is responsible for assuring that any hazardous, toxic, or radioactive materials have been removed from the site, including asbestos-containing materials. The owner also must have a clear title for the property, which must comply with state and local building codes as well.

The building owners are not required to pay part of the elevation costs, though they are responsible for any repairs required to make it eligible for the program.

“We’re going to focus on the lowest elevation structures, the ones that are in the greatest risk today, and then in low and moderate income neighborhoods” in determining which homes to be included in the first 1,000 elevations, Lezina said.

Laurie Cormier, a member of the coastal authority board who represents Calcasieu Parish, urged the authority and Corps staffs to go door-to-door to identify potential participants.

She said in many areas included in the elevation program, homeowners have been offered — and turned down — opportunities in recent years to receive funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and loans from the Small Business Administration because of their inability to pay a share of the construction costs, required by those programs.

She’s concerned that those residents may confuse this new program, with its much less restrictive rules, for those older programs, and ignore requests to fill out applications to participate.

Lezina said it’s also unclear whether the Corps might decide to expand the elevation program to homes that were not included on its 2016 list, since many of those homes were damaged or destroyed in hurricanes after the list was compiled.

Lezina also confirmed that the elevation program does not require homeowners to buy federal flood insurance, a restriction that was included in the FEMA and SBA programs that Cormier said also caused homeowners to not participate in them.

For more information about the Southwest Coastal flood risk reduction and elevation program, including to apply for the elevation grant, go to the Corps’ Rock Island District website: https://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/SWCoastal/

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