The U.S. Army Corps reports it’s ready to take on a 100 year storm. Construction crews have been hard at work across the region. The corps has been busy in several parishes, especially in Orleans. Crews have been working along the 17th Street Canal. Neighbors are watching.
“I just hope they are doing the job they should have done before that wasn’t done because the flood walls did not hold and they could not be held accountable for that and all of us suffered, so I hope that they are trying to make it u,” said Lakeview resident Cheryl Gross.
Gross like so many others, lost everything, but she came back, and has given the corps a second chance to improve flood protection.
“The system is a system now. We can defend the 100 year storm, and they are in a lot better shape then they were 4-5 years ago, even last year," said Rene Poche with the Army Corps of Engineers.
The corps says the T-Walls are very solid structures, the pumps are checked regularly, and overall everything is much more secure. This is what Gross wants to hear.
And Gross sees one silver lining in all this construction: the increase in property values.
“With Lakeview, with them securing the levees, even further, it will definitely up the property values because people will feel safe to buy here. They’ll feel secure in terms of bad weather, in terms of a hurricane in the Gulf coming, even if they evacuate,” Gross said.
But the corps says this all about risk reduction which is never 100 percent, so it urges people to always heed the warning when an evacuation is ordered, and get out when a dangerous storm is heading our way.
Corps officials say they were able to achieve this level of protection thanks to teamwork with state and local agencies.
