Work on Red River Levee Offers Hope for Avoiding ‘Flood Insurance Nightmare’

The threat of a flood insurance nightmare in Louisiana’s Rapides Parish and elsewhere was delayed, but not eliminated, by Congress last year.

But the threat is slowly diminishing as work proceeds to fix deficiencies in the Red River levees to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ standards, with the work about two-thirds complete for projects in Rapides and Grant parishes.

A lot of people may have thought the area “dodged a bullet” when Congress voted to mitigate the impact of legislation that would have forced many Rapides Parish property owners to have flood insurance and would have driven up the price of that insurance to the degree that it would devastate the local economy.

“They dodged a bullet for a while, but they (federal officials) didn’t unload the gun,” said Paul Trimble, an engineer for Meyer, Meyer, LaCroix & Hixson engineering firm of Alexandria.

“We want to be ready and complete by the time that comes back around,” said Kyle Smith, an engineer with of Pan American Engineers of Alexandria.

He was referring to a projected 2019 timetable for federal remapping of levees that could revive the specter of the flood insurance havoc for communities whose levees don’t meet federal standards.

The Meyer firm is handling levee recertification projects related to the South Bank levee of the Red River in Rapides Parish and the North Bank in Grant Parish. The total cost of all of those projects is about $19 million, according to Robert Hughes, president and CEO of the Meyer firm.