Jefferson Parish officials are upset that the Army Corps of Engineers has no plans to strengthen the Metairie side of the walls at the 17 ^th Street Canal.

Saying that the walls “meet all the requirements we have,” Thomas Podany told the Jefferson Parish Council that no work had to be done.

“Because we have that temporary gate at the lake, those walls don’t need to function during a storm,” said Podany.

The Corps contends that the closing of the floodgates would prevent a surge from getting into the canal and overwhelming the levees as happened on the New Orleans side of the canal during Katrina. The Corps has no plans to armor the levees on the Metairie side.

The news didn’t sit too well with Jefferson Parish leaders.

“While these gates are closed… those walls can be pushed out and threaten residents in Jefferson and Orleans,” said Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard.

Broussard said he worries about a heavy rain that would cause the water levels to rise. He said if the gates are closed, the rising water could pressure the walls.

Parish leaders said they are prepared to bring in sandbags to place behind the levee walls to help prop them up in severe weather, a move the Corps says is unnecessary.

Podany said the Corps has plans in place to make sure the water inside the canal doesn’t rise too high, but Councilwoman Jennifer Sneed said a distracted pump operator could put those plans at risk.

“The human error of a slight variation could be all she wrote,” she said at the meeting.