In Battered La. Parish, Fears for the Future

Cost of Levees May Threaten a Way of Life

The White House is deciding whether to rebuild Plaquemines Parish's levees. (By Alex Brandon -- Associated Press)

BURAS, La. -- This small town is a sliver of land wedged between the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, and when Hurricane Katrina made landfall here in August, a raging storm surge wrecked virtually every storefront, office and home.

Now hundreds of people, many of them fishermen or oil-rig workers drawn by long family ties, have returned to live in trailers and hope to rebuild in this same precarious spot.

The question is: Should they be allowed to?

Staggering new cost estimates for building levees here put the price of protecting this little town and others like it in lower Plaquemines Parish at $1.6 billion, or more than $100,000 for every person living here before the flood, federal rebuilding coordinators reported this week.

The dismal cost-benefit analysis has thrown into doubt not only the levee project but also the continued existence of the rural communities that are depending on it in this water-rimmed strip about 60 miles southeast of New Orleans.

"It would be the first time that this country has simply abandoned an entire community -- at least I can't think of another example like it," said Benny Rousselle, president of the parish. "It would be a shame. You can't put a price on these people's lives. Look at all the faults in California. Look at all the hurricanes in Florida. Do they make those people move out?"

With an estimated 20 square miles of coastal Louisiana disappearing every year, scientists have long raised the possibility that there may have to be a "managed retreat" from portions of the coast, with some unfortunate communities pulling up stakes as the waters encircle their settlements.

Not fixing the levees in lower Plaquemines Parish, now a distinct possibility, would amount to the same thing, residents said.

Federal rebuilding coordinator Donald Powell announced this week that the Bush administration is proposing to spend an additional $2.5 billion to improve levees in the New Orleans area -- but not in lower Plaquemines Parish. The administration continues to study whether improving the levees there to meet flood insurance standards would be "economically justifiable."

Without the levee project, people here could not get flood insurance -- or mortgages -- for new or rebuilt homes unless they raise them 20 to 35 feet above the ground, federal officials said. Many believe that prospect would lead to the virtual abandonment of the area, which once counted nearly 15,000 residents.

Some have argued that the federal government should refrain from protecting or insuring development in vulnerable locales such as lower Plaquemines Parish, but that is a hard message for many people here.

The small towns and other patches of development of lower Plaquemines Parish are strung along a narrow strip of land along the Mississippi River, and residents prize the fishing and hunting available to them. For the vast majority of adults, formal education stopped after high school. French surnames are common, and nearly 90 percent of residents were born in Louisiana.