by Jeff Parsons

Created on: July 07, 2008   Last Updated: July 10, 2008

When Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hammered the Gulf Coast, many flood protection structures became overwhelmed by the relentless fury of wind whipped waves, rising water levels and fast flowing river channels. More than one million people were displaced by the emergency evacuations.

Since then, the State of Louisiana has provided a Comprehensive Master Plan for long-term coastal protection and restoration. Aging flood control structures will be modified or replaced, flood management systems will become sustainable and other flood risks will be mitigated through technologies and procedures such as floodplain mapping and levee certification. This solid plan will leverage a commitment of available funding, materials and human resources to get an enormously difficult job done, but it will take years of dedicated cooperation and teamwork.

In the meantime, what will happen to over 200,000 evacuees who returned to flood damaged homes?

The repairs are time consuming, available workers are in short order, and construction prices are skyrocketing. Fortunately, help is available through sound financial advice and low-interest loans from agencies like the SBA, FDIC and NeighborWorks America programs, all of which coordinate the efforts of state and federal banking agencies to assist Louisianans in need.

That will help for now. What going to happen in the future?

Ultimately, larger and more reliable funding streams will be needed. That kind of capital will germinate from the Comprehensive Master Plan's show of confidence, persistence and dedication to make the best of the situation in a structured and logical pathway to success.

But, not everywhere can be helped at once. A line has to be drawn in the sand. Some lands won't become protected until many years have passed, if at all, and, on a personal level, this isn't just land. It's more important. It's people's lives. Last time, over 1400 people died.

Over 80% of coastal Louisiana is privately owned. Who's not going to get near-term flood protection? And how will this be decided? In the short-run, any decision is going to be controversial to say the least. For instance, maybe Lower Plaquemines Parish will fall victim to this triage-battlefield-type of thinking because the money could be better spent elsewhere on more people. That's the cold, wet, grim facts of hard reality.

Spending the available resources wisely is prudent, but completely abandoning these areas is not the answer. It would isolate these locales from long-term protection,

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