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No immediate deadline set on levee certification
Federal officials said Monday night Concordia Parish is facing no immediate deadline concerning the certification of the parish's backwater levee system.
Responsibility for the system rests primarily with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Fifth District Levee Board, officials said.
FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) officials said that while the Red River Backwater Levee System has been decertified that there is time to get the system back into compliance. They estimated that the compliance deadline could be up to three years away.
"There's a storm brewing across the country on levees," FEMA's Shona Gibson said. She said a number of U.S. Senators and House members asked FEMA to revisit the compliance process.
FEMA's Jay Hendricks said flood insurance costs and availability, which could be affected by lack of compliance, would not be affected until the guideline and compliance process is tweaked.
"My guess is we're two to three years at earliest before we could effect anybody's insurance," he said. "It will be three to four years before Concordia is brought up to date with all the appropriate risks with new (floodplain) maps."
The Police Jury called the meeting with levee officials in response to notification by Larry Walters, the parish's floodplain manager, that the backwater levee system had been decertified.
Also in attendance at Monday's meeting were representatives of the Corps of Engineers (Vicksburg District), Fifth District Levee Board and Concordia Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness.
Kent D. Parrish, the Corps' project manager for Mississippi River Levees, said the Red River Backwater Levee System, which has to be re-certified, protects 1,000 square miles of land in Concordia between the Mississippi on the east, the Red on the south, the Black on the west and the Tensas on the north.
The system includes 93.2 miles of earthen levees, 23 drainage structures and one pump station.For the full story, subscribe to the The Concordia Sentinel's NEW E-Edition! |
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