Did flood reveal drainage problems in south Lafayette Parish?

In nearly 30 years, Youngsville’s population has exploded 350 percent, making it the fastest growing city in Louisiana.

Before the boom in growth, the community along U.S. 90 consisted of mostly of farmland for sugar cane growers.

Between Jan. 1 and Aug. 1 this year, 218 residential and commercial building permits were issued in the south Lafayette Parish community of about 12,000 residents. Its new high school is scheduled to open next year.

But on Aug. 11, an unnamed storm rolled into the region and hovered, dumping trillions of gallons of water flooding 60,000 homes throughout South Louisiana, including hundreds in Youngsville. More than 90 percent of one subdivision was under water and at one point every road in that community was closed.

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With rapid growth in the same area that saw historic flood levels last month, some have asked: Are we overbuilding areas with unprepared infrastructure?

For decades, former Youngsville Mayor Wilson Viator farmed the land off of Fortune Road before it was developed into subdivisions Highland Ridge and the Villas in the mid-2000s.

Both subdivisions flooded extensively.

The subdivisions were built to regulations for 10-year flood events, but on dated maps, he said.

“Those two areas were developed in 2006 and 2007,” Viator said. “They are developed under the old FEMA maps. Those flood maps did not have those areas in the flood zone."

28,000 Acadiana households registered with FEMA

Could it have been prevented?

Viator was in office when the subdivisions were built. Though the area was not considered flood prone at the time, Tropical Storm Allison’s landfall in 2001 proved the area was vulnerable, he said.

“When they developed Highland Ridge, in particular, I made a statement that this property is not supposed to be in a flood zone,” he said. “But I’m telling you, because I farmed it for years, you are going to have problems. I told the developer that they need to try to tell these people that they need to buy flood insurance.”

Many didn’t have flood insurance. According to the Louisiana Insurance Commission, thousands were uninsured when the storm rolled in on Aug. 11.

Highland Ridge was built within regulation, Viator said, it was just built using older maps. FEMA updated flood maps in 2008. The third phase of the subdivision was built under the new map and didn't flood, Viator said.

"If you want to blame somebody for those people who flooded in Highland Ridge in the first two phases, blame FEMA because they didn’t bother to study the area," he said.

But why did other subdivisions in the south Lafayette Parish community not flood, asked Francis LeMeunier, a Highland Ridge resident.

Sugar Mill Pond, less than a mile away, didn't see nearly the amount of flood levels, he said. Newer subdivisions such as Copperfield, Willow Trace and Field Crest also did not have experience extensive flooding.

LeMeunier noted that Highland Ridge consists of starter family homes, with starting prices of $130,000 to $165,000. Some flood victims, including LeMeunier, have accused developers of cutting corners in lower-priced subdivisions.

His comment was sent to The Daily Advertiser via email after Youngsville’s current mayor, Ken Ritter, told the city council earlier this month that, “There is simply no amount of engineering around here that can handle this type of event if that amount of rain falls here."

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Former Lafayette Consolidated Government Public Works Director Kevin Blanchard said he agrees with Ritter’s statement.

There simply isn’t a solution to a weather event no one was prepared for, he said.

“Obviously there are a lot of folks who lost a lot. It is very emotional and that is very understandable,” Blanchard said. "But this was historic and unprecedented. That’s the No. 1 thing that everyone needs to keep in mind.”

Blanchard left the government post a year ago and is now an attorney for Southern Lifestyle Development, the company behind the Village of River Ranch and Sugar Mill Pond.

With developments in five parishes, Southern Lifestyle Development builds to standards above minimal regulation out of precaution, Blanchard said.

“Our company is completely in favor of solid policy and planning ahead and looking at regional detention,” he said.

Regional detention is a coordinated effort across 500 ore more acres, creating basins and drainage channels to prevent flooding.

With regard to the August flooding, however, Blanchard believes there is nothing that could have been done to avert that much rainwater in such a short period of time.

“We are not going to be able to engineer our way out of this. The amount of rain that fell over that short period of time, there’s just no amount if infrastructure that could have been put in place that could have handled that,” he said. “You don’t want to fight the wrong battle and say, 'How did this happen?'  It happened because a lot of people got very unlucky and a lot of rain fell in a very short period of time."

Five completed Shelter at Home houses in Acadiana

New standards

Regardless of unprecedented flooding, developers in the Youngsville area will soon be held to a higher building standard when it comes to natural disasters.

Ritter has introduced an ordinance that requires developments to build for a 25-year weather event rather than a 10-year event, the current standard.

The ordinance was introduced a few weeks after the flood, though it has been in the planning stages for several months as part of the city’s new 10-year master plan.

If anything, the historic flood reinforced the need for Youngsville, and the whole region, to look closer at our drainage systems and “where we grow from here,” Ritter said.

“Youngsville has led with new development in our parish," the mayor said. "So I think it’s only appropriate that we lead the conversation about how do we address drainage moving forward.”

The ordinance, which  will be considered for adoption Oct. 13, requires developers to build commercial and residential developments to hold more storm water as the city works to update its infrastructure.

The city has $7 million budgeted for infrastructure improvement and is looking for additional funds, Ritter said.

“We are still using drainage modeling that we did decades ago,” he said. “Other communities with less annual rainfall already build to those higher standards today.”

Ritter is meeting with developers this week to address the proposal and the city’s master plan. He said he expects some resistance to  the new standards mostly because of inopportune timing.

The plunge in oil prices has taken a toll on the economy. Lafayette and its neighboring communities were ranked  among the worst 10 housing markets in America by Nationwide Economics report released last week.

Higher standards mean higher costs, which could be passed on from the home builder to the home buyer.

“But if we don’t ask these questions now, when will a good time be?” Ritter said. “I understand the economy and the housing market is sluggish, but this is the right thing to do.”

Regional approach

Much of Youngsville’s drainage is maintained by Lafayette Consolidated Government. After the flood, the two governing bodies entered into an agreement to clear coulees of debris and sediment.

But,  several officials said during a recent meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, improving drainage in one parish isn’t necessary going to help its neighboring parishes.

St. Martin Parish President Guy Cormier initiated  a meeting Sept. 6 to begin a conversation with other Acadiana parish presidents and the Army Corps of Engineers on creating a drainage authority.

Does Acadiana need a regional drainage authority?

Bill Fontenot, a longtime civil engineer and St. Landry Parish president, attended the meeting in support of a regional approach. It isn’t realistic to develop for a 1,000-year storm, he said, but the flooding  revealed a need for improved detention and watershed control as we continue to build Acadiana.

“I think this event can be the event that gives us all a cause for pause and taking a look at development from a regional point of view,” Fontenot said. “If we are going to develop to the extent that Youngsville has developed, then we may want to include more detention areas.”

There is decades worth of data and maps available to begin the efforts to improve drainage regionally, Fontentot said.

“We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.  And the watershed hasn’t changed,” he said. “Whether you pave it or leave it in its natural state, that’s where the water is going to flow. Now it’s going to flow faster if you’ve got concrete and pavement and rooftops.”