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LAWEN Flood Discussion Brief The Louisiana floods of 2016: Insights from a select group of planners, academics, funders, and professionals focused on integrated water management, smart growth, floodplain management, and resilience. Drawn from a series of videoconference calls in late August and early September 2016. Convened and reported by: Stephen C. Picou & Grasshopper Mendoza Key Areas of Agreement section reported by: Alessandra Jerolleman & Tara Lambeth On August 11, 2016, an un-named tropical system began dumping massive volumes of rainfall on parts of Louisiana. The majority of rain fell in the first few days but showers lingered over many inundated areas through August 16. The flooding, which impacted areas across a swath from northeast of Baton Rouge to north and south of Lafayette, represents the largest Louisiana disaster since the hurricanes of 2005. Thirteen people died, and estimates are that more than 100,000 households and thousands of businesses were affected [1]. A minority had flood insurance [2]. This was the second major flood event in Louisiana in 2016. In March, heavy rains impacted forty parishes. By December, nearly all of the state’s 64 parishes had been declared federal disaster areas. On August 15 we recognized that those of us working on medium to long-term water management solutions needed to talk. We believed that many of the flood’s impacts were exacerbated by poor choices in design, planning, construction, codes, and policies; and that some of the ideas and plans promoted in the immediate response were not informed by integrated water management principles and best practices for risk reduction. Exacerbating our concerns was a letter Governor Edwards sent to the federal government in which he stated, “we do not plan to require homeowners to simply build higher,” and in which he called for funding of old and new flood “control” projects [3]. In our roles as leaders of the Louisiana Water Economy Network (LAWEN), we reached out via phone to colleagues in planning, sociology, hazard mitigation, disaster response, and flood plain management. We turned to technology, and setup a series of videoconference calls. We didn’t want to burden people affected by or immediately responding to the flood, so the majority of invitees were based outside the affected areas.
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Calls took place on August 24 and 29, and September 7. Seventeen people joined the first call, and a total 27 people participated over the course of all three. The discussions were one hour each, moderated by Alessandra Jerolleman, PhD, CFM, VP of Water Works. The conversations were guided by the following questions: • What is the single greatest medium to long-term opportunity that Louisiana has to better manage water and reduce risk as a result of this recent flooding? • Are there gaps that we (as a community of practitioners) can address better together? • What’s next? We recorded and transcribed the calls, then shared the transcripts in both full and condensed versions via the LAWEN Slack channel. The transcripts were further condensed by Tara Lambeth, PhD, CFM, of the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response & Technology at the University of New Orleans (UNO-CHART), and by Alessandra Jerolleman, and their efforts constitute the core of this brief. One month later, on September 20, LAWEN convened in Baton Rouge. The agenda included a Post-Flood Discussion Summary of the calls presented by Alessandra Jerolleman. The calls highlight an overarching challenge for practitioners in the public and private sectors to connect, share, and act upon the growing body of knowledge; and the need for more integrated approaches that reduce risk while improving both the environment and economy.
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2016 Flood Discussion Participants Isabel Barrios
Greater New Orleans Foundation
Miriam Belblidia, CFM
Water Works L3C
Traci Birch, PhD
LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio
Ezra Boyd, PhD
DisasterMap.net
Mark Davis, JD
Tulane Institute for Water Resources Law & Policy
Ella Delio
Greater New Orleans Foundation
Monica Farris, PhD, CFM
UNO Center for Hazards Assessment, Response & Technology
Pam Jenkins, PhD
Foundation for Louisiana
Alessandra Jerolleman, PhD, CFM
Water Works L3C
Justin Kozak, PhD
Center for Planning Excellence
Tara Lambeth, PhD, CFM
UNO Center for Hazards Assessment, Response & Technology
Shirley Laska, PhD
Lowlander Center
Tony Laska, PhD
Opes Consilia Advisors
John Lopez, PhD
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation
Nathan Lott
Greater New Orleans Water Collaborative
Jo-Anna Lutz Jones
Planner
Camille Manning-Broome
Center for Planning Excellence
Grasshopper Mendoza
Adaptation Strategies/Louisiana Water Economy Network
Will Pestoff
Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation
Steve Picou
Adaptation Strategies/Louisiana Water Economy Network
Shannon Stage
US Green Building Council-Louisiana Chapter
Jeff Supak
Global Green New Orleans
Jeffrey Thomas, JD
Thomas Strategies
Jamelyn Trucks, CFM
Atkins Global
Mike Waldon, PhD
Hydrologist
Prisca Weems
GNO Funders Network/FutureProof
Liz Williams
Foundation for Louisiana
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Key Areas of Agreement and Possible Actions The LAWEN Group Discussions following the 2016 flooding in Louisiana focused around a few key areas of agreement: 1.
Louisiana has an opportunity to rethink the ways in which planning is currently being done. This might include looking at the watershed scale, doing a better job of looking across sectors, incorporating groundwater, and revisiting state enabling legislation to better incorporate resilience and water management into comprehensive planning statewide.
2.
Louisiana, and its Parishes, have an opportunity to adopt higher regulatory standards. These might include looking at minimum statewide floodplain ordinance provisions, enhancing the building code, or moving away from slab-on-grade construction.
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Risk reduction can also be achieved through voluntary action. The incorporation of freeboard 1, shifting away from slab-on-grade construction, and building to a higher standard can all be led by consumer demand, the professional design community, and other stakeholders. Education across the board is critical.
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Sharing best practices, across a wide range of stakeholders, and making them accessible to the public, media and elected officials is key to changing the local understanding of risk and of mechanisms for risk reduction. We need a repository to share examples of effective practices in Louisiana to help other regions of the state see positive models and actions.
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There are erroneous statements being made by the media, leaders, and the general public. This group can work on a coherent message and serve as a source of factual information.
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Freeboard is the measure of elevation of a building above base flood elevation (BFE). Post-floods, Louisiana’s building code council voted against requiring a single foot of freeboard above BFE for new construction on the grounds that it would add too much to the cost. Every foot of freeboard reduces flood risk and flood insurance rates.
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Key actions possible in support of these areas of agreement: 1. Targeted messaging to all levels of the community during all parts of the disaster cycle (i.e. parish leaders, rural vs. urban, coastal vs. inland) a. Communicate actual risk b. Discussion of Climate change c.
Education around the concept of a “1,000 year� flood
d. The risks of slab-on-grade 2. Share best practices 3. Promote flood insurance 4. Emphasize better planning a. Land Use Planning b. Watershed based planning c. Systems approach 5. Support efforts to increase standards a. Revise building codes b. Freeboard c. Link policy makers at different levels d. Link policy documents e. Request/use funds for resiliency 6. Promote a Regional approach a. Link recovery to mitigation - $$ - cost benefit; economic development b. Integrated water management
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Select quotes from the discussions (in chronological order): There’s a gap in risk communication. From homeowners understanding flood insurance, from media understanding what fifteen to thirty inches of rain means; there is a need to communicate hazards and risk among all stakeholders. Tara Lambeth, UNO Center for Hazards Assessment Research & Technology If most homes had been raised basement with flood vents, losses would’ve been less. The building typology is likely to be the main cause of the extent of damage. Nathan Lott, Greater New Orleans Water Collaborative We went over the maps of East Baton Rouge Parish with the Capital Region Planning Commission, looking at all the homes affected. All the neighborhoods built after 1980 when the flood plain management ordinance was enacted, where you had to retain water and build at a certain height, all those neighborhoods remained dry and everything around them was flooded. Camille Manning-Broome, Center for Planning Excellence I think we need to be extremely clear that we are not reacting only to a rain event; we are dealing with flood management and flood risk. It doesn’t matter where the water comes from; if it’s in your home or business, you’re affected. And that’s not the way we do it right now. We plan from one approach if the water comes from the Gulf, one approach if it comes from the river, and one approach if it comes from the sky. I think we have to find a way to educate people that this is vector management, not risk management. Mark Davis, Tulane Institute for Water Resources Law & Policy This is an opportunity to institutionalize watershed planning. What happens upstream affects communities downstream. Prisca Weems, Greater New Orleans Funders Network
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I also want to jump on the bandwagon of watershed management systems. I think this is a real opportunity to be coordinating multiple parishes across the systems. Liz Williams, Foundation for Louisiana
I agree, this is definitely an opportunity for better coordination in the watersheds. But I also echo…in terms of the opportunity for state planning in the midterm and longterm, and making sure that our policies on the state level are helping the different parishes and cities in their efforts to bring about better water management. Ella Delio, Greater New Orleans Foundation I’m very interested in the fact that this is a teachable moment…that we believe will be an opportunity for…making citizens aware as community stakeholders who are going to bear the brunt of any poor decisions, and what their choices actually entail. Jo-Anna Lutz Jones, Planner There is also a real opportunity to think about a regional framework for decisionmaking. Traci Burch, LSU Coastal Sustainability Studio If we can make the arguments about actual costs and lifecycle costs, that is to say the avoided costs by building something right; that’s going to be central to a lot of our arguments because it’s going to get down to economics. Tony Laska We’re really interested in a collaborative approach for the floodplain managers. Justin Kozack, CPEX We hear about the cost of elevation, but we don’t hear about the cost of the status quo, the cost to people, to society, to the economy, of doing things the way that we have been, and rebuild the way things were with the same old polices and the same old way of thinking…How we can show economic benefit that accrues from following best practices? Alessandra Jerolleman, Water Works
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There is no central touch point within communities for water knowledge…We’re going to have a new kind of blight that communities haven’t dealt with in the past. Steve Picou, Louisiana Water Economy Network There are some significant unmet needs…and one of the challenges that all of these communities will face is figuring out how to support their non-homeowners and also the owners of small rental units because our programs really are not well-suited to that. Alessandra Jerolleman, Water Works We have been keeping an ear to the ground about the latest in terms of building codes and how people can rebuild via elevation…I’m hearing a lot of shortsightedness… about rebuilding elevation. We are still trying to figure out how we can best help folks in this area make better decisions for long term risk reduction. Shannon Stage, US Green Building Council-Louisiana Chapter I’ve heard over the course of these calls general agreement for doing planning on a larger scale, looking at watersheds, looking across sectors, looking beyond a much smaller scale and really seeing how things fit together, whether it’s a systems model or looking at not just flooding but groundwater and all these other components…Another value I’ve heard across the board is the idea of higher standards…that coordination, getting folks at different levels across government, at different organizations talking to each other, sharing information…is there a way to gather these models and share them? Alessandra Jerolleman, Water Works Something I think we’re going to have to work against is the idea that this was just a freak of nature and it’ll never happen again, so we can do things like lower flood requirements…we need to recognize that coastal land loss is going to change flood frequencies for riverine flooding upstream in areas that are outside the coastal zone. Mike Waldon
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That twenty four inch rainfall bullseye…could’ve just as easily been over New Orleans or the Pearl River; so this flash flood phenomenon is not unique to those particular watersheds, and if this is a climate-induced event, this may illustrate a broader vulnerability we have to a different kind of phenomenon than we have been addressing with hurricanes. John Lopez, Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation We need an organization with the gravitas to really bring a lot of these elements together to streamline some of these processes of education and outreach, and we haven’t seen that emerge even through all the things we’ve gone through in prior years. Steve Picou, LAWEN The agency that would be kind of high on the list would be DOTD (the Department of Transportation and Development). Traditionally they’ve handled water management projects outside the coast. But where you run into a problem is more of the community mitigation, which has to do with zoning and land use, and that’s very much local, municipalities or parishes. Part of the problem is that the state could be doing water management, but the parishes could be doing their land use and they may not be syncing up. It cries out for some architecture or planning that rectifies that. John Lopez, LPBF
Special Note: In July 2017 we were all shocked by the unexpected loss of participant Ezra Boyd, PhD, founder of DisasterMap.net and one of the world’s emerging leaders in understanding and planning for hazards and disasters. Ezra was a shining light, loved by all who knew him, and is badly missed during these times of increasingly calamitous weather and climate change.
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References 1. Gallo, A. and G. Russell, Sobering stats: 110,000 homes worth $20 billion in floodaffected areas of Baton Rouge region, analysis says, in The Advocate. 2016, Capital Cities Press LLC: Baton Rouge LA. 2. Dolce, C. Louisiana’s Historic August Flooding Cost More Than $8 Billion, Officials Say. 2016 September 5, 2016; Available from: https://weather.com/news/weather/news/historicaugust-louisiana-flooding-billion-dollar-disaster. 3. WAFB Staff. Gov. Edwards requests more money for flood recovery ahead of second DC trip. 2016; Available from: http://www.wafb.com/story/33073817/gov-edwards-requestsmore-money-for-flood-recovery-ahead-of-second-dc-trip.
Š 2017, Adaptation Strategies LLC, adaptationstrategies.com Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
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