Tagged: flood protection

The Army Corps of Engineers has approved the third and final phase of the St. Charles west bank hurricane levee, which means all three phases of the levee project have corps approval to move toward construction.

At the St. Charles Parish Council meeting on Monday night, Parish President V.J. St. Pierre said the Corps of Engineers approved a permit green-lighting the design and construction of Phase III Ellington, the last permit necessary to authorize the project. The other two phases had already been approved.

Metro area residents probably know stories about consumers with big eyes and small wallets who become “house poor.” But in the years ahead they may become familiar with a new, more frightening term: “levee poor.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is providing $19 million for flood mitigation efforts at nine sewerage pump stations in New Orleans.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, a Louisiana Democrat, said in a statement Friday that improving the sewerage infrastructure can help the city prepare for reduce the impact of a natural disaster.

The FEMA grant will pay for elevating and hardening the pump stations to prevent the kind of flood damage that occurred during hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

Work is expected to begin in spring on construction of a sand dune barrier designed to protect Port Fourchon.

The Courier reports the Greater Lafourche Port Commission has approved a $3 million bid to build about a mile of dunes along the beach.

The dunes will be built up to a height of 10 feet and will be made of a textile tube core filled with slurry to form a solid base that can't be easily washed away by storm surge.

The construction bid was awarded to New Orleans-based Hamp's Construction.