City of Central Grant Opportunities, Flood Recovery, and Drainage Master Plan

CSRS was engaged by the City of Central with a Technical Assistance contract to guide the City in funding and management decisions related to the 1,000-year flood that catastrophically impacted the City and its citizens in August 2016.  Since inception, the contract tasks have evolved and are on-going, as recovery continues.

Damage Assessments, Project Worksheet Creation, FEMA Negotiation

With a focus on federal funding programs, CSRS deployed its policy and Public Assistance (PA) subject matter experts to manage funding from numerous sources, including the FEMA PA Program, insurance and anticipated HUD Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) for “match” funding. CSRS’ funding assistance included identifying hazard mitigation and resiliency funding options to strengthen communities in the case of future disasters. To date, nearly $14 million in damages have been identified, mostly related to debris removal, damage to roads, and damage to the City’s drainage system and the City has received more than $6 million from FEMA in response to these requests. Negotiations for additional funding are on-going. This task required extensive coordination with both FEMA and the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOSHEP).

HMGP

The federal government awarded more than $100 million of Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funding to East Baton Rouge Parish following the August 2016 flood event. $13.7 million of those funds have been allocated to the City of Central. CSRS worked with the City to identify and develop eligible projects and assisted with application preparation including damage impact and benefit-cost analyses and submittal to FEMA.

CSRS completed the City’s first-ever Master Drainage Plan

The City of Central, Louisiana is surrounded to the south, east, and west by the Comite and Amite Rivers. Extreme, heavy rains in August of 2016 resulted in catastrophic flooding with thousands of homes and businesses in the City of Central severely impacted. Following the disaster, the City began its recovery efforts and sought opportunities to improve its resiliency during the re-building process. Being a newly formed community, Central had yet to conduct a comprehensive Drainage Master Plan. The City then procured and selected CSRS to lead its flood recovery efforts and to conduct the City’s first comprehensive Drainage Master Plan.

Immediate action: CSRS stood-up and managed a 13-month effort to clean approximately 48 miles of the City of Central’s open drainage system.

CSRS conducted stream assessments to identify storm damages in the 6 named streams within the city limits. The work includes the identification, collection, temporary staging, and disposal of all disaster-related sediments, vegetation, trees, woody, other organics, sediments, construction, household, vehicular, or foreign debris, floating or submerged and within the channel banks and right-of-way, impeding the flow and/or velocity of stormwater through the impacted open channels identified by the City and impacting the overall capacity and functionality of the City’s stormwater management open drainage system.

CSRS has developed and calibrated 1D and 2D hydraulic models of the 6 major watersheds within the City utilizing the recently collected 2018 high-resolution LiDAR elevation data. They have utilized these models to understand the hydraulic system of canals, identify problem areas, and simulate and develop proposed solutions to the problems. These models are the foundation for developing a flood forecasting system as well as support the continued effort in floodplain management and drainage maintenance for the City. CSRS identified and surveyed 48 linear miles of named streams, 155 culverts, and 54 bridges.

Following the generation of an inventory of the City’s drainage features, the creation and application of a standardized naming convention can provide a powerful tool for the City to use to ensure continuity when referring to crossing and stream segments. The naming convention will also allow for better cataloging and record retention associated with inspection and maintenance activities.

Stakeholder engagement and facilitating communication for everyone throughout the development of the Master Drainage Plan was necessary to ensure a positive outcome. It promotes collaboration amongst the many entities with a vested interest in the City and it allowed citizens to voice their concerns and offer input into the process. Stakeholder engagement was achieved through a variety of ways during the planning process. We conducted numerous meetings with federal, state, local leaders.

Arguably, the most important stakeholder that required engagement during the preparation of the Master Drainage Plan were the citizens of the City of Central. The City’s residents offered valuable input to the process from their experiences over years of living in the area during historical rain events. On April 9, 2018, the planning team conducted a public information meeting. The meeting was intended for individuals who wanted to learn more about drainage and the status of the City’s on-going MDP. Attendees were informed of current efforts to improve the City’s drainage and were offered the opportunity to provide input on their specific areas of concern. Additionally, attendees had the opportunity to meet members of the project team and ask questions regarding the study.

Additionally, CSRS developed a capital improvements program of projects to reduce flood impacts to structures and property and identified nearly $80 million in drainage related funding. Finally, CSRS developed a “Resiliency District” concept to be replicated throughout the City.