http://www.theadvocate.com/louisiana_flood_2016/article_59c52500-6a28-11e6-af6e-877659a40ce5.html [/size]
Walker Mayor Rick Ramsey plans to sue state DOTD, U.S. Department of Transportation over 1-12 flooding WALKER – A lawsuit is coming in the aftermath of the extensive flooding of Walker, but the city is not the target.
Mayor Rick Ramsey is taking aim. Ramsey confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Walker plans to sue the Louisiana Department of Transportation.
“DOTD, with the approval of the U.S. Department of Transportation, constructed a dam,” with the barrier it built in the center of Interstate 12, Ramsey said.
“I’ve spoken to the city attorney and I will speak to him … to prepare the lawsuit,” Ramsey said.
The Walker mayor said the city plans to contact law firms that specialize in litigation against governmental bodies and would “contract with one on a contingency basis to sue.”
The mayor estimated 60 percent of the residences in Walker were damaged by floodwater and eight residential developments were completely flooded.
“That’s why you spent three days in your house,” Ramsey said, handing a photo to a reporter.
The color photo shows Interstate 12 looking east to Hammond at the La. 447 (Walker South Road) overpass, Ramsey said.
On the left, the north side, is a solid wall of green water. On the right, the south side, there is no water except for narrow streams coming through where two pieces of concrete meet.
“We have begged DOTD for three years to add cuts,” through the barricade, Ramsey said.
The reply he got from the state agency, Ramsey said, was if it increased the flow of water it could create a flood and the people south of Walker would sue the state.The DOTD work raised the level of I-12, he said, by six to 12 inches when it overlaid the road surface, by four to six feet with the barricade and by another six feet with work done under the overpass at Juban Crossing.
Ramsey said he is angry, but “the anger is different. A hurricane is a natural event. This is anger (that) it could have been controlled. It’s diligence and responsibility. Who approved the barriers?”
“They knew it (the floodwaters) would approach the 1983 event,” he added, referring to DOTD. “They could have moved every damn one (of the barriers) before it happened. And leave the ‘damn’ in,” Ramsey said.
“The math is simple,” Ramsey said. “In 1979, my house was built. In the 1983 flood, it got zero water. My house is below the base flood level.”
The mayor’s home on Pendarvis Lane faces the Three Lakes development, between Pendarvis and I-12, where the homes were required by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to be built five to six feet higher.
“And they still got three feet of water,” he said. His own home got six feet of water.
“I’m not being selfish using my home as an example, but look at Three Lakes. That was a manmade disaster.”
“It won’t be pleasant,” Ramsey said about the lawsuit. “There are insurance companies that will jump aboard, piggyback on it,” so they won’t have to pay flood damage claims.
Ramsey said several subdivisions have contacted him and want to be part of a class-action lawsuit. He acknowledged winning the lawsuit would not be easy, but he said the purpose was to let DOTD know, “We are aware of what happened.”
“I heard a rumor that someone opened a couple of the barricades,” Ramsey said, “and the water dropped four feet in a matter of hours. You might want to ask why the water left so fast,” if the barricades were not blocking the water.
Ramsey, who estimates he has been working 20-hour days, praised the city’s workers for their efforts.
“We finally sent the streets department home today for some rest,” the mayor said. “They have been busy pulling cars out of ditches to improve drainage and removing limbs and heavy debris. The Police Department got a little break but they’re coming right back.”
The Louisiana National Guard also has come in to provide relief and enforce the curfew, according to Ramsey.
“Unfortunately we have had a few instances of looting,” Ramsey said.
The curfew will stay in place until Walker businesses can clean up and open again, he said.
Ramsey also has put the photo of the wall of water on I-12 as his screen saver.
“It’s replaced Cal Ripken; I need the motivation,” he said.
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I'm not sure this will fly, but count me in if it does.
My lot is about 8 feet above the record high water mark from the record flood of 1983. I got about 5 feet of water. I'm certainly not a hydro engineer, or whatever they are called, but it would seem that the water level would have had to be about 13 feet higher than in '83 to affect my house like it did. However, the river crested only 4.85 feet higher than in '83. I wonder if this has anything to do with it.
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