In the News

Work on Walker's storm drainage has been ongoing for months, with crews working neighborhood after neighborhood dredging ditches, ripping out old, crumbling culverts and replacing them with new ones. But clogged drains and overgrown ditches are only scratching the surface of the problem. "Eighty percent of the City of Walker is considered a flood zone," said City of Walker's Chief of Operations Jamie Etheridge.

The flood map for Livingston Parish is covered in blue, indicating everything in danger of going underwater. It includes many of the neighborhoods along Pendarvis Lane. Janele Landry's home on Peggy Drive flooded in 2016, then again on June 6, 2019.

She had just put in new floors and cabinets, and her baseboards and molding were stacked outside. But on July 28, rainwater came within an inch of getting inside yet again.

"I've had people calling me, leaving messages crying. I'm out here putting sandbags up again, and it's just a normal rain storm," said Livingston Parish Councilman Jeff Ard.

But fixing drainage inside Walker is not all it takes. When the water flows out of Walker, it's going to parish waterways.

"That whole field would be covered with water," said Jerry Evans, who has lived along Hornsby Creek for the past 30 years with his wife. Evans' home came close to flooding in 2016. He says now, every time it rains, the creek backs up into the neighborhood. In a nutshell, that's the interconnected headache that's the drainage problem just about everywhere. Many neighborhoods are connected by what's called a watershed. Think of it as a tributary system on the Mississippi River in which one river drains into another, into another, and eventually two thirds of the nation's water is draining through Louisiana.

There are five watersheds draining through Walker. The Hornsby Watershed starts in St. Helena Parish. Any rain there drains through Livingston Parish, into Walker, and past the neighborhoods. Even if there's no rain in Livingston Parish, but a thunderstorm up north in St. Helena Parish, it can raise the Hornsby Creek as much as a couple of feet.

There was heavy equipment rolled down my street that I never dreamed would come down the street, and I'm talking about big, big equipment," said Evans.

That equipment is doing some much-needed work that mostly goes unseen.

"We've needed this. We need it bad. We've been needing this for the past 15 to 20 years," said Ard.

Cleaning Hornsby Creek is part of a $53 million project to improve the water flow. That's just one of the several waterways that will be cleaned. Over the years, tires and debris have clogged the creek. Crews are working to clear the junk in order to get the water flowing freely again.

"It takes a long time, and people do not like studies. They don't like for you to talk about how long it takes. It takes a long time to get funding in place and to do the projects, even when everybody is on board," said Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks.

Ricks says to date, many Livingston waterways have been cleared, including West Colyell, Tickfaw River, Blood River, Colyell Creek, Little Colyell Creek, Judalon Ditch, and Beaver Branch Reach 1 and 2. Many more are just getting underway and several others awaiting final approval.

We hope to clean up every waterway in Livingston Parish before this is said and done," said Ricks. As good as that sounds, it's not the final solution.

"The concerns that we have are that we are developing our communities in known flood zones," said Etheridge.

After the 2016 floods, many new homeowners are elevating their homes on mountains of dirt. Those mountains keep water from draining in the normal way and put it in streets and possibly into homes.

"We want people to build and make this their home, but we don't want people that are moving in to damage people who moved here 20 years ago," said Etheridge.

It's a tangled mess. Fixing a problem in one place creates a problem somewhere else. Florida Boulevard is a perfect example.

When the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) repaved Highway 190, crews also cleaned out the culvert running beneath the highway. The water that once pooled on the north side of 190 now pools on the south side, flooding a home every time it rains. Walker officials say the culvert needs to be bigger, but if they fix it, improved drainage would flood even more people, like the Landry family on Peggy Drive.

"We are really in a heck of a situation with record water coming down, with record land loss, and encroachment of the Gulf coming up. This is a really, really challenging area to manage the amount of water we have," said U.S. Congressman Garret Graves.

Congressman Graves has already secured millions to clean the waterways. He's working on another $1.2 billion for flood protection for the entire state, but he says to give it time.

"In some areas, you actually will see progress in months, meaning you will see better flood protection, better drainage in the coming months. In other communities, we are going to be looking at two to three or a maximum of four years," said Graves.

It's because managing all the watersheds is not as simple as dredging the ditch in front of your home.

Walker officials want to hear from the public. A meeting will be held Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. at Walker Freshman High in the auditorium. Engineers and many officials will be on hand to answer all residents' questions.

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