Orleans Levee Board

rdf:langString Orleans Levee Board

rdf:langString From 1890 through 2006, the Orleans Levee Board was the body of commissioners that oversaw the Orleans Levee District (OLD) which supervised the levee and floodwall system in Orleans Parish, Louisiana (which is coextensive with the city of New Orleans). The role of the OLB has changed over time. Prior to Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the OLB developed land and sold it to raise money to build and improve levees. After 1965, Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers to be responsible for design and construction of the hurricane flood protection system enveloping New Orleans. Owing to the 1965 legislation, the OLB's duties regarding hurricane surge protection were now limited to collecting the 30% cost share for project design and construction, and to maintaining and operating completed flood protection structures. Until the end of 2006, the OLB was a major governmental entity which functioned independently of municipal government in and around Orleans Parish. In the wake of the catastrophic levee failures in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, two new regional flood protection authorities were created to replace the multiple parochial levee boards, including Orleans Parish's Levee Board. Most of the Orleans Levee District now falls under the jurisdiction of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - East, charged with the oversight of all flood-protection infrastructure for Greater New Orleans on the East Bank of the Mississippi River. The Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority - West possesses the same metro-wide jurisdiction for the West Bank of the Mississippi, and it includes that portion of the Orleans Levee District on the West Bank (i.e., Algiers). After Hurricana Katrina, it was widely believed that a different form of levee board governance might be more appropriate for a major marine terminal like New Orleans. Nevertheless, the issue of whether the members of the OLB Engineering Committee acted incompetently or negligently has not been conclusively demonstrated or proven.