re: 1,800+ East Baton Rouge Parish homes may need to be raised because of 2016 floods

I keep saying this, but each flood even and really each rsin we have washed more wild, crud, debris, and etc. into the river basin.

The Amite and every one of its tributaries is shrinking. Creeks, canals, and ditches are shrinking. The entire basin has hardening if the arteries and needs a gigantic Roto rooter machine to clean it out.

This coupled with new developments is making things worse.

Anyone have a map of where the 1800 homes in East Baton Rouge are located and where the 1200+ homes in Livingston are? I imagine they are located very close to the Amite River.

Sounds like 1800 homes are now impossible to sell.

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The houses in the curve of Burbank at Highland haven't flooded yet but it looks like the ditch in front of the subdivision is about to overflow the banks and encroach towards the homes.

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That’s going to happen anywhere there is that much rain like Baton Rouge has has to deal with recently. It doesn’t mean that subdivision wasn’t built to a required election, but it does appear it’s in a flood zone A, which means a minimum of 1 foot above BFE. I’m sure they are at least that high.

What concerns me is that these insane storms that drop well over a foot off rain over a few days seem to be common enough in Louisiana that I seriously think some “no go” zones need to be established to prevent people from building in low lying areas where there aren’t a lot of controls over development (Livingston in particular) until the local governments come up with a plan on how to handle that. More density and more houses in areas flood zone X, fewer homes and larger lots in A, with strict elevation requirements.

There must have been 1,000+ homes developed south of I-12 in Livingston by low/mid priced production builders. I really hope they aren’t setting those residents up for a disaster. I know Livingston has done next to nothing to address their transportation and drainage issues locally. And the state does nothing quickly, if at all, for Baton Rouge metro issues within their purview.

Same story for Preserve at Harveston along Bluebonnet. It’s not necessarily in the floodway, but it appears to be in Zone A and likely had to be elevated before they started pouring concrete. It looks like they did, and I know they have not flooded. It doesn’t seem like it, but EBR does watch that lately. It’s too bad they didn’t 20-30 years ago when they were developing Gardere or all of those homes right up against the Amite.

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Iberville Parish installing those aquadams could flood all of those homes by not allowing Bayou Fountain/Bayou Manchac to flow into Spanish Lake.

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They had to get a judge to stop them last time, but IMO the state needs to intervene and ensure that this doesn’t happen again. Spanish Lake is a natural reservoir for these kinds of floods. People should not be building along Manchac or Allegator Bayou road through the swamp at all unless they want a home on stilts. And we definitely should not flood thousands to save a few slack jawed morons that knew the risks and built at grade anyway.

I’m okay with blowing up the road to help that area drain quickly after the floods. But not if they install a dam and disrupt the natural watershed, flooding thousands of people in surrounding parishes in the process.

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EBR can direct as much water as it wants down that path due to over or ill-planned development just because it is a natural pathway for water?

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It’s a natural pathway. They aren’t directing anything. But they are dredging and clearing bayous (rarely....maintenance isn’t really something EBR is good at) that will move water into it faster.

IMO this is a very good case where a regional flood plan needs to be adopted and adhered to, with state backing on relocating people in floodways if necessary.