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LAWEN Flood Discussion Brief The Louisiana floods of 2016: Insights from a select group of planners, academics, funders, and professionals focused on integrated water management, smart growth, floodplain management, and resilience. Drawn from a series of videoconference calls in late August and early September 2016. Convened and reported by: Stephen C. Picou & Grasshopper Mendoza Key Areas of Agreement section reported by: Alessandra Jerolleman & Tara Lambeth On August 11, 2016, an un-named tropical system began dumping massive volumes of rainfall on parts of Louisiana. The majority of rain fell in the first few days but showers lingered over many inundated areas through August 16. The flooding, which impacted areas across a swath from northeast of Baton Rouge to north and south of Lafayette, represents the largest Louisiana disaster since the hurricanes of 2005. Thirteen people died, and estimates are that more than 100,000 households and thousands of businesses were affected [1]. A minority had flood insurance [2]. This was the second major flood event in Louisiana in 2016. In March, heavy rains impacted forty parishes. By December, nearly all of the state’s 64 parishes had been declared federal disaster areas. On August 15 we recognized that those of us working on medium to long-term water management solutions needed to talk. We believed that many of the flood’s impacts were exacerbated by poor choices in design, planning, construction, codes, and policies; and that some of the ideas and plans promoted in the immediate response were not informed by integrated water management principles and best practices for risk reduction. Exacerbating our concerns was a letter Governor Edwards sent to the federal government in which he stated, “we do not plan to require homeowners to simply build higher,” and in which he called for funding of old and new flood “control” projects [3]. In our roles as leaders of the Louisiana Water Economy Network (LAWEN), we reached out via phone to colleagues in planning, sociology, hazard mitigation, disaster response, and flood plain management. We turned to technology, and setup a series of videoconference calls. We didn’t want to burden people affected by or immediately responding to the flood, so the majority of invitees were based outside the affected areas.
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