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Levee Board Veteran Stephen Estopinal Speaks About Governor’s Plans

Monday, March 24th, 2025

Immediately after the Hurricane Katrina flooding in New Orleans, pre-Katrina local levee board members were scapegoated for the catastrophe. One member who served from 1997 to 2001 was a Catholic nun, but they were all wrongly portrayed as corrupt.

It was the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that flooded New Orleans with its inferior design and construction.

This is back in the news because Louisiana’s governor wants the job of selecting New Orleans’ levee board members to be returned to the governor.

Hear about it from an expert – civil engineer Stephen Estopinal who served on the post-Katrina East Levee Authority for eight years, with two of them as its elected president.

Check out episode 122 of Beat the Big Guys podcast.

Past-Levee Authority Commissioner Stephen Estopinal on Recent Resignations

Thursday, March 20th, 2025

Four members of the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East (SLFPA-E) have resigned in protest over Governor Jeff Landry’s appointment of a levee commissioner.

The appointment openly disregards the levee board laws passed after Hurricane Katrina.

While the leadership at Levees.org disagrees with the Governor’s decision to flout the law, the leadership also insists it ‘just doesn’t matter.’

Because the SLFPA-E, even one populated with experts, cannot tell the Army Corps of Engineers what to do.

This is stated plainly by respected civil engineer Stephen Estopinal who served on the East Levee Authority for eight years (two as president) from 2008 – 2016, the most important years while the new system was being built.

The Advocate continues to live in the past

Thursday, March 6th, 2025

Cars were neatly deposited on the roofs of houses in Chalmette about 10 miles south of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Andy Levin/Polaris

Alex Lubben, a reporter for The Advocate, recently called me for commentary on Governor Jeff Landry’s plans to dismantle the SLFPA nominating committee created after Katrina.

I told Lubben that the levee board “reforms” passed 20 years ago were a distraction. I explained that the “reforms” drew attention away from the true culprit, the USACE. The flooding was due to federal engineering failure, not to anything the pre-Katrina levee boards did or didn’t do.

Lubben did not quote me. And instead he re-printed all the tired worn out statements that blamed the pre-Katrina levee boards for the flooding. And failed to mention the Army Corps of Engineers and its role.

Meanwhile, reporters for The Advocate continue to use something called “Katrina shorthand.” This is saying things like “Katrina ravaged New Orleans” rather than using words like “federal levee failure” when describing the flooding in New Orleans.

For the recent story by Lubben, click here.