Levee lessons from Katrina

When it comes to flood protection, it's anything but easy in The Big Easy.

The destruction in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 put a nationwide focus on levees.

With hundreds of miles of levees protecting Mid-Valley homes and businesses, local officials say a Katrina-style event could easily occur here, particularly with the similarities between the levee systems of New Orleans and Sutter County.

Last month, Sutter County Supervisors Dan Silva and Larry Montna, along with Public Works Director Doug Gault and Deputy Director of Public Works-Water Resources Dan Peterson, traveled to New Orleans to examine changes being made to levee systems in Louisiana.

They presented their findings during last week's Board of Supervisors meeting, explaining lessons learned during the four-day trip to the New Orleans and how local levee-upgrade efforts mirror Louisiana's post-Katrina efforts.

"It's what the (Army Corps of Engineers) would like to see," Silva said of regional flood planning. "It's what (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) would like to see. It's what the state of California would like to see."

The trip included tours of new levee projects in the New Orleans area, along with meeting representatives of large and small levee districts.

Louisiana is using a system of regional flood-control districts and boards, which communicate directly with local levee districts and governments.

That is being done locally with the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency, Silva said.

Many of the issues that New Orleans faced in Katrina are the same in Sutter County, the trip-goers said.

During the Jan. 4 storm, Peterson said, the pumping station that sends rainwater from Gilsizer Slough and Live Oak Canal into the Sutter Bypass lost power, causing water to back up and flood nearby duck clubs.

A similar failure happened in New Orleans during Katrina, he said.

"That's the type of thing we're worried about," Peterson said.

They also used the presentation to say that residents who don't have flood insurance should get it.

Peterson noted that homes in New Orleans being rebuilt were the ones with flood insurance. Those without insurance were boarded up and abandoned.

"This could have been us," he said.

Contact Appeal reporter Robert LaHue at 749-4713 or rlahue@appealdemocrat.com.