05:11 PM CST on Thursday, March 30, 2006

Dave McNamara / WWL-TV News Reporter

State officials in Louisiana expressed shock and outrage Thursday after finding out that they’ll need billions in extra dollars from Congress to fund the minimum levee improvements to have the area qualify for national flood insurance.

WWL-TV

This section of the levee along the Industrial Canal failed when floodwaters topped the levee and scoured out the supporting side. The Corps of Engineers will insert an inverted 'T' wall to avoid this problem during future storms.

“This is a monumental miscalculation,” said Governor Kathleen Blanco. “It’s really an outrage.”

The Army Corps of Engineers is already doing $2 billion worth of work to fix the levees that were damaged, breached or flattened by hurricane Katrina and another $1.5 billion is pending in Congress to continue the work for the next few years. But the pre-Katrina standard the work is aiming for, will not fortify the levees to an acceptable level for FEMA to allow residents to obtain flood insurance.

Blanco said she got the news late last night, and that Congress should investigate how the levee repair estimates could be off by $6 billion.

"This could delay and jeopardize our recovery even more and it keeps thousands of families and businesses on hold and in limbo," she said.

The Corps has said repeatedly that its repairs will lead to bigger, stronger levees that will stand at pre-Katrina levels. But FEMA, which runs the National Flood Insurance Program, said that level doesn't meet the standard it needs to protect residents from a 100-year flood event.

If the Corps of Engineers can't certify that its levees will protect against a 100-year flood, then residents may be forced to elevate homes or businesses 10-15 feet, or perhaps as much as 30 to 35 feet above sea level to qualify for flood insurance.

The Corps blamed stronger hurricanes, years of sinking land and subsiding levees, increased development, and wetlands loss for an entire system that's below the flood plain.

Here's the cost of bringing the New Orleans area up to the new FEMA standard. Improvements in East New Orleans would cost $710 million. 

St.Bernard-Lower 9th Ward = $1 Billion.  

East Jefferson-St. Charles = $386 Million

West Jefferson = $657 Million

Algiers- Belle Chase = $290 Million

That would cover 99 percent of the population. However, if you add in Plaquemines Parish, the cost doubles with another $2.9 billion.

That's a fact not lost on Don Powell, who leads President Bush's gulf coast recovery effort. 

"One would clearly understand by looking at the chart that for roughly $2.5 to $3 billion, you would encompass about 99 percent of the population," he said during a conference call.