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Levee Reform Passes Statewide!
Reform Efforts Successful
Read about legislation here 
 
  In the News
10.04.2006
Old levee board still fighting reform
 Almost three-quarters of New Orleans homeowners say they will use federal grants to rebuild their flood-ruined properties rather than take a buyout or relocate, a figure that far surpasses the state average and

10.01.2006
Louisiana restructures management of levees
 Louisiana voters on Saturday approved consolidating the New Orleans area's levee boards, the generations-old agencies whose politically appointed members were criticized after Hurricane Katrina for failing to maintain the area's levees

10.01.2006
Louisiana voters support levee reform
 Louisiana residents on Saturday approved an amendment to the state constitution to overhaul flood and hurricane protection efforts in the region still struggling to rebuild from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.

10.01.2006
Levee reform now law
 A citizens campaign to abandon politics-as-usual culminated Saturday in an overwhelming statewide vote to consolidate southeast Louisiana's balkanized system of levee boards and replace them with flood
09.27.2006
Extravagance: The need for reform
 In the past three decades, nothing got the Orleans Levee Board into more mischief than something it had in abundance: money. While most public agencies scrambled

09.25.2006
Upcoming statewide vote on levee reform
 The government-reform crowd was elated back in February after a recalcitrant Legislature finally agreed to restructure southeast Louisiana's patchwork network of levee boards.

09.23.2006
N.O. City Council cronies oppose reform
 The first order of business at Thursday's meeting of the New Orleans City Council was supposed to be a presentation by Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans, the grass-roots group that has taken the lead in
09.17.2006
Levee reform: A difficult process
 If legislation can be compared to sausage, the product of last spring's levee board consolidation drive resembles the least appetizing variety: the kind where you can actually see the gory innards.

09.13.2006
Senator supports united levee board
 Louisiana Sen. Walter Boasso, stumping statewide for levee board consolidation, said Tuesday that the strongest pocket of opposition is centered in Jefferson and Orleans parishes.

08.29.2006
Levee battles become settled
 Almost seven months after the Corps of Engineers got a billion dollars to rush work on sinking levees, vulnerable pump stations and unfinished storm protection projects throughout the region, a logjam of legal requirements and

08.28.2006
Problems with levee construction continue
 A flawed repair at one of New Orleans' most vulnerable levees has raised questions about the city's ability to withstand a

08.28.2006
Corps flood protection strategies
 Although the Army Corps of Engineers has spent more than $352 million to bring levees, floodwalls and drainage systems in the New Orleans area back to where they were before Hurricane Katrina hit a year ago
08.25.2006
Engineers support one levee chief
 New Orleans needs a single person responsible for its levee system in order to avoid another Hurricane Katrina-style disaster, the American Society of Civil Engineers

08.17.2006
Levee Board goes gambling...again
 Undaunted by questions about whether it will even exist five months from now, the Orleans Levee Board has added another project to its to-do list:
08.10.2006
Potential change in floodgate plans
 A massive floodgate blocking waterways that converge near the Paris Road bridge would almost certainly prevent the kind of storm surge that blew apart the Industrial Canal during Hurricane Katrina,
08.10.2006
Senator considers use of ships as storm barrier
 Marine Scientists and Louisiana officials are floating the idea of sinking some of Uncle Sam’s cast- off ships along the water’s edge to create a steel

07.23.2006
Army Corps to cut levee trees
 Hoping to prevent the public outrage that greeted it in East Jefferson, the Army Corps of Engineers began briefing New Orleans officials last week on its plan to cut 12 live oaks and dozens of other trees

07.19.2006
U.S. Senate to require review of Army Corps projects
 The U.S. Senate today agreed to require independent peer review of costly and controversial U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' flood control and

06.02.2006
Army corps admits to levee design flaws
 The Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Thursday that design defects in the levees protecting New Orleans caused the majority of flooding during

03.23.2006
Wetland buffers may offer additional protection
 The 20-Arpent Canal levee runs straight as a green arrow through the wetlands of eastern St. Bernard Parish, its sides covered with a thick carpet of grass, its crown dry and firm enough to support the

03.21.2006
Levee standards subpar
 As they near the end of their investigations into the deadly failures of New Orleans' hurricane protection system, some of the nation's top engineering minds have come to one unshakable conclusion: If

03.11.2006
New report raises several questions
 The force of surging high water from Hurricane Katrina bent back a key New Orleans floodwall and splintered its foundation, an investigating panel said Friday in a report that sheds

03.11.2006
Unanticipated scenario caused levees to fail, says Corps
 A unique combination of stresses that engineers could not have predicted caused the 17th Street Canal floodwall to fail and flood thousands of homes and businesses during Hurricane Katrina, according to an interim report of

03.08.2006
Experts argue levee repairs inadequate
 A dispute over the safety of levee repairs in New Orleans intensified Tuesday, when the head of an academic team investigating levee failures during Hurricane Katrina said the repairs being overseen by the Army Corps of Engineers

02.17.2006
Levee Reform Passes the House
 After resolutely resisting critics' attempts to alter the governor's levee board overhaul plan, the House gave a nearly unanimous blessing Thursday to the milestone legislation dissolving local commissions

02.15.2006
Compromise levee reform passes the Senate
 In a major turnaround, a unanimous Senate passed the governor’s bills to overhaul the New Orleans area levee boards Tuesday after supporters of the proposal yielded to West Bank

02.12.2006
Too little, too late?
 The good news for Sen. Walter Boasso: the governor now supports his plan to dissolve the levee boards of southeast Louisiana.

02.11.2006
House kills idea of single consolidated board
 In a seven-hour meeting that ended Friday at 1:48 a.m., the House transportation committee reduced the scope of the governor's levee board consolidation plan from an eight-parish region

02.10.2006
Opposition builds towards single board
 In a surprise move by proponents of the governor's regional levee board consolidation bills, a House committee took up the legislation in a late meeting at the Capitol on Thursday night.

02.09.2006
Westbank opposes single levee system
 Legislation to help shore up the state-sponsored insurer for people who can't get coverage in the regular market and an array of proposals to consolidate levee boards

02.07.2006
Single levee board to top legislative agenda
 Legislation to help shore up the state-sponsored insurer for people who can't get coverage in the regular market and an array of proposals to consolidate levee boards

02.02.2006
Reform group pushes levee reform
 As debate continues in Baton Rouge about proposals to combine multiple levee boards in flood-ravaged southeast Louisiana into one professional board, a nonpartisan citizen group pushing the idea is gearing up for a final

01.31.2006
New panel to supervise regional boards
 An 11-member board appointed by the governor would take control of existing and newly created levee districts in eight southeast Louisiana parishes to form a new regional authority over flood protection,

01.30.2006
Ideas discussed for New Orleans flood defenses
 Even as plans to build interim gates and bypass pumps at the mouths of three big stormwater outfall canals in New Orleans advance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is testing a new concept to block the

01.24.2006
New Orleans to hold levee summit
 New Orleans leaders hope to hold a summit soon on one of the biggest questions facing the still-devastated city -- the rebuilding of the levees Hurricane Katrina fractured.

01.22.2006
Protecting New Orleans
 Immediately after Hurricane Katrina pummeled New Orleans last August, President George W. Bush and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security declared that no one could have predicted such devastation. Yet scientists, engineers and Louisiana state
01.22.2006
Levee repairs far from done
 At the halfway mark between the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina last year and the beginning of the 2006 hurricane season on June 1, the Army Corps of Engineers has completed only 16 percent of its planned repairs to New Orleans's battered flood

01.21.2006
Computer simulations test levee design
 Department of Energy supercomputers are being used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study levee design in New Orleans and help predict future hurricane damage along the Gulf

01.20.2006
June date promised for hurricane protection
 After touring the levee-rebuilding effort in the New Orleans area Thursday, the assistant secretary of the Army for public works and the top officer in the Army Corps of Engineers said they are confident the
01.18.2006
Closing canals seen as key to flood defense
 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun issuing calls for bids to construct storm gates and bypass pumps for the mouths of three stormwater outfall canals in New Orleans.

01.17.2006
Is levee board consolidation the best approach?
 Despite the fact that Hurricane Katrina left an imprint on nearly every aspect of life in south Louisiana, the public has enthusiastically espoused — through petitions and demonstrations — a singular
01.17.2006
Unfinished work from 1965 plan left levee gaps
 As investigators scrutinized the city's levees after Hurricane Katrina, they were astounded by what they had discovered along the Orleans Canal: lengthy

01.17.2006
Levee investigators to meet
 The National Academies’ National Research Council, along with other organizations investigating New Orleans levee failures, will be meeting in the city on Wednesday.

01.17.2006
Experts point to reasons for floodwall collapse
 In the frantic days after Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers scrambled to plug a breach on the 17th Street levee, dropping

01.14.2006
Corps rushing to secure levees
 In New Orleans, the apocalyptic clock is ticking - again. Ravaged last year by one hurricane and slapped by the fringes of another, the city faces a 2006 storm season that begins in less than five

01.13.2006
Corps of Engineers: World is watching
 The head of the Army Corps of Engineers' task force to rebuild New Orleans area levees said Thursday that he knows his agency's success in restoring

01.11.2006
Temporary gates to protect canals
 The Army Corps of Engineers will use temporary gates to close off three canals in New Orleans and will import stronger clay from Mississippi to help

01.10.2006
A new year and... Louisiana politics as usual
 A former colleague of Bobby Bourgeois described him as someone with "excellent people skills," and in recent months he has shown a particular

01.05.2006
Clock ticking for levee repairs
 Work on the New Orleans region's shattered storm protection system has been under way for weeks. But the question remains: Can the Army Corps of
01.04.2006
Questions of levee "takings" remain
 Like so many of her neighbors, Sandra Miller is waiting to rebuild her flooded home along the 17th Street Canal. Waiting to see if the breached floodwall

12.30.2005
Search continues for cause of levee failure
 Four months ago, they failed spectacularly, causing the costliest natural disaster in United States history. Today, New Orleans' levees are considered the
12.30.2005
Design concerns not addressed
 The engineering mistakes that led to the canal levee failures that flooded most of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina were found and then dismissed in the Army Corps of Engineers' design

12.29.2005
Floodwall collapse blamed for majority of New Orleans deaths
 Nearly 600 people who died because of Hurricane Katrina might have survived had floodwalls on two New Orleans canals not collapsed, a Knight Ridder

12.28.2005
Levees not repairable before June 1 say critics
 Bush administration officials have promised that the Army Corps of Engineers will repair New Orleans' broken levees by June 1 of next year, in

12.25.2005
Dysfunctional partnership reveals mismanagement
When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New Orleans levee officials joined forces in July 1985 to protect the city from a long-feared hurricane, the

12.20.2005
Katrina downgraded to category 3 at landfall
 Katrina hit the Gulf Coast as a Category 3 hurricane, not a Category 4 as first thought, and New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain likely were spared the

12.19.2005
Cause of levee failure still undetermined
While the excavation last week of sheet piling near the 17th Street Canal breach confirmed Army Corps of Engineers records about the depth of the floodwall

12.18.2005
Levee design process questionable
 After a 1980 flood caused a stretch of the city's London Avenue canal levee to collapse, the Army Corps of Engineers proposed replacing it with a fortified design called a T-wall, with sheet pile

12.17.2005
U.S. Attorney issues subpoenas to Orleans Levee Board
The embattled Orleans Levee Board has received from U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office two subpoenas for a wide range of documents, a signal that the

12.16.2005
Call to Governor: Don't delay reform
 Gov. Kathleen Blanco and her legislative leaders act as if this were any other December. They act as if Louisiana has nothing unusual to cope with, as if

12.15.2005
Who's in charge?
 Federal engineers trying to stop New Orleans flooding were unsure who was in charge of fixing the levees amid the confusion of Hurricane Katrina,

12.15.2005
Group collecting signatures for levee reform exceeds goals
 A petition drive calling on the state to establish a unified, professional levee board for the New Orleans area has gathered more than 46,600 signatures in less than three weeks, a spokeswoman said

12.12.2005
Senate supporter of levee reform plans to offer new bill
 State Sen. Walter Boasso told a new citizens watchdog group Monday that the recent defeat of his levee consolidation bill could result in far more sweeping changes during the next legislative

12.10.2005
Attorney who questioned levee board policies resigns
 In the latest twist in an ongoing political saga, the Orleans Levee Board's longtime staff attorney, who openly questioned the legality of several

12.08.2005
Dredging caused significant problems with canal, says experts
 When the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board developed a plan in 1981 to improve street drainage by dredging the 17th Street Canal to increase
12.07.2005
Why levee reform is needed
 In a very close call, the Legislature earlier this year refused to add a fat $48,000 raise to the chairman of the Orleans levee board. It's a classic example of

12.06.2005
Defeat of levee board reform affects Louisiana bond ratings
 Louisiana officials say the Legislature's failure to reform the levee boards and enact a new ethics law is to blame for Wall Street downgrading the state's

12.05.2005
Several legislators make last minute change for levee reform after bill is assured of defeat
 A bill to consolidate several New Orleans area levee boards was shot down, 51-38, in a controversial

12.05.2005
Three martini levee inspections
 Before Hurricane Katrina, levee inspections in New Orleans were so superficial that one engineer who used to work for the Army Corps of Engineers said

12.04.2005
Integrity of Jefferson Parish floodwall questioned
Experts don't yet know why the floodwall on the Jefferson Parish side of the 17th Street Canal didn't collapse during Hurricane Katrina, but investigating forensic engineers say no one should take much comfort until more is known about

12.04.2005
Lunch carefully planned, levee inspections not so much
When engineers and Orleans Levee Board officials gather twice a year to tour the city's floodwalls, records show that the inspection requires less planning than the day's final event: lunch

11.30.2005
Doomed from the start?
Experts say 17th St. Canal was a disaster waiting to happen... (And it was!)

11.30.2005
Engineering tests confirm levee shortfalls
Government engineers performing sonar tests at the site of a major levee failure confirmed that steel reinforcements barely went more than half as deep...

11.22.2005
Where is the governor?
If Gov. Kathleen Blanco wants Louisiana to pull through the crisis created by Hurricane Katrina, she needs to start providing some leadership.

11.22.2005
Reformers try to enact levee reform
Even before Gov. Kathleen Blanco released her official agenda for the hurricane-recovery special session, the topic of levee board reform seemed destined to be among the most contentious

11.17.2005
Lawmakers to levee reform: Forget it
Thanks to Katrina, people all over the world now know about southeast Louisiana's levees. They know that the sprawling system is the area's only line of

 



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