Residents get input on hurricane issues
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Coastal residents will have an opportunity this week to help guide a hurricane protection and coastal restoration plan for southwestern Louisiana.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state are holding meetings in Cameron, Calcasieu and Vermilion parishes to discuss an $8 million study on how best to handle restoration and protection issues in those parishes.
Allowing for public input so early in the planning stages is a departure from some past coastal studies.
“Now, there is an effort to be a lot more engaging with the public early on in the process,” state Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority spokesman Chris Macaluso said.
The southwestern coastal study will be the first attempt to integrate plans for hurricane protection and coastal restoration, he said.
The plan addresses an area known as the Chenier Plain, which extends from Texas to Vermilion Bay and is characterized by ridges that rise above a wide expanse of marsh.
The area faces different restoration issues from the Mississippi River Delta region in southeastern Louisiana, and residents and government officials in southwestern Louisiana have long decried what they say has been a disproportionate share of attention and money.
Congress authorized the southwestern Louisiana study in 2007, calling for the federal government and the state to split the $8 million in funding.
The study is expected to be finished within three years.
The first scoping meeting on the project is scheduled today at the Cameron Parish Courthouse in Cameron, followed by meetings Wednesday at the Central School Arts and Humanities Center in Lake Charles and Thursday at Abbeville High School in Abbeville.
The meetings begin at 6 p.m. and are scheduled to last about three hours.
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