New Orleans’ hurricane protection system faces looming threats. Money to address them is lacking.

Plans to address looming threats to the New Orleans area’s vital hurricane protection levee system involving sinking land and the effects of climate change are at risk of being put on hold due to a lack of funding.

The Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts are the latest factor. But funding concerns also date back to President Joe Biden’s term, when only relatively small amounts of money were appropriated.

The concerns involve two key projects: one to maintain the New Orleans area hurricane levees high enough to not be overtopped by storm surges with a 1% chance of occurring in any year, the so-called 100-year storm level; and another to study increasing the east bank levee system’s ability to withstand 200-year storm surges.

Maintaining the levees at 100-year level is important not only for actual flood protection, but also for flood insurance purposes. If the levees drop below that level due to a combination of land subsidence and sea level rise, they may lose their certification under the National Flood Insurance Program, causing rates to skyrocket.

Separately, the 200-year study is seen as important in part because of how storms are projected to intensify in the years ahead. So-called 100-year storm surges are expected to occur more frequently in the future.

Congress has authorized both projects, but funding must be appropriated separately. No money is included for either in both President Trump’s budget proposal for the next fiscal year and the “big, beautiful bill” approved by Congress.

Under the congressionally authorized plans, the federal government is slated to pay 65% of the cost of keeping the levees at 100-year level through 2078, with the state covering the rest. The east bank portion of the work is estimated to cost $2.6 billion and the west bank $613 million, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Over the 2024 and 2025 fiscal years, the Corps received its 65% share for engineering and design funds to keep the levees at 100-year levels, amounting to $3 million for the east bank and $765,000 for the west bank.

As for the 200-year study, no federal money has been appropriated for it so far.

Land sinking, water rising

The $14.6 billion hurricane protection system built in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has been widely praised as a vast improvement over the levees that crumbled during the 2005 storm. But because of Louisiana’s subsiding land and increased sea levels expected to result from climate change over the next 50 years, regular work is required to keep it all at 100-year surge level.

One recent study showed parts of the system are sinking faster than sea levels are rising.

According to Corps analysis, keeping the system elevated is expected to result in annual economic benefits from avoided flood damage of $167 million a year for the east bank and $59.9 million for the west bank. A first round of levee elevations should occur by 2033, one study found.

“We are currently finalizing our review plan, beginning hydraulic modeling, and rights of entry for data collection. Once complete, we will have better insight regarding the project schedule,” said Corps spokesperson Ricky Boyett.

But the president of the east bank regional levee authority raised concerns that the Corps wasn’t receiving enough money to keep the levees elevated, despite support for such funding from the regional authorities and the state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.

“We, as an agency, have worked hard over the last few years to ensure that regular levee lifts and other necessary maintenance are in the Corps’ authorization and funding to maintain our 100-year protection level,” said Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East President Roy Carubba.

The east bank levee system, known as Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity, would see 50 miles of levee lifts and 3 miles of replaced or new floodwalls. The West Bank and Vicinity system would include 49 miles of levee lifts, 1 mile of new floodwall and 268 feet of floodwall replacement.

Sea level rise caused by global warming over the 50-year planning period is taken into account. The plans, for example, include raising portions of the Mississippi River levees on both banks that are considered part of the hurricane levee system to keep up with sea level rise.

An expensive part of the work will be replacing fabric mats used to armor the outer portions of earthen levees from erosion caused by storm surges during hurricanes. The mats will have to be replaced for each levee lift. The matting adds “resilience” to the earthen parts of the levee system, which the Corps says armors them for a 500-year surge event.

Carubba said the authority has built its 35% local match funds for both the design work and eventual construction into its annual budgeting process.

Jesse Noel, regional director of Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-West, said it began working on a self-funded levee lift program in 2022, and is in the permitting phase for lifting two levee sections. It’s also working with the Corps on the long-term 100-year lift program.

“To fund these efforts, SLFPA-W is utilizing a supplemental millage approved by the voters in 2018 which is dedicated to funding capital projects, including levee lifts,” he said.

‘Dire consequences of levee failure’

As for the 200-year study, the concerns are two-fold.

One involves worries that 100-year protection will not be enough as storms intensify in the future. But the second involves the original design itself.

Even as it was being built, local and state officials warned it would be overtopped by surges caused by storms the size of Katrina. The strength of the levees are designed to withstand being overtopped and not crumble, as they did in Katrina. But serious flooding would still occur from overtopping.

Forensic studies by the Corps indicate that hurricane surges from storms greater than 100-year strength could result in significant parts of the levee interior being flooded with as much as 5 feet of water, even assuming that all pumps are operating properly.

Katrina’s surge on the Mississippi coast — about 28 feet above sea level plus waves — was considered a 400-year event.

In St. Bernard Parish, surge overtopped levees along the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet at levels as high as 19.5 feet plus another 4.5 feet of waves, which some have compared to a 250-year event. In Lake Pontchartrain, the highest water level was measured at 12 feet, plus waves.

A $3 million, three-year study on whether to raise the system to 200-year level was authorized by Congress in 2022, but has not yet received any funding.

The state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority sent letters to the chairs of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on April 1 urging the funds be appropriated.

In 2024, the east bank authority also agreed to pay half of the $3 million study cost, rather than its normal 35% share.

The study may consider ways of elevating the post-Katrina levee system, as well as adding wetlands or other features outside the levees to reduce surge heights, or finding ways of temporarily storing or redirecting surge water away from the protected area.

“The Greater New Orleans area is home to critical industries, including energy, shipping, and tourism, all of which rely on robust flood protection infrastructure,” said then-CPRA executive director Glenn Ledet Jr., before his recent appointment to head the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.

“The devastation of Hurricane Katrina demonstrated the dire consequences of levee failure, and we must act now to fortify our flood protection systems before the next major storm.”

Carubba also raised concern about the failure to fund the study.

“Regrettably, the Corps has dragged its feet in initiating the study,” he said. “So we are using every means available to procure federal funds to make that happen, and we will have the necessary state/local match available when needed to construct the necessary assets to continue to protect our citizens.”

Schleifstein, a longtime Times-Picayune environmental reporter, is now a Walton Family Foundation environmental reporting fellow.