January 9, 2006.
A Pleasure Horse and an enjoyable ride in Winterwijk, Netherlands.
The Netherlands and Louisiana
By GERARD SHIELDSAdvocate
Washington bureau
Published: Jan 15, 2006
AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS -- Mention the Netherlands and most people reference the old picture of the little boy with his finger in the dike holding back the flood waters.
My, how times have changed.
Last week, the Dutch hosted a contingent of 50 local, state and federal officials from Louisiana, showing off their nation’s comprehensive system of steel barriers, concrete dams, dikes, sand dunes and pumps.
But, as Louisiana Secretary of Transportation and Development Johnny Bradberry noted at the conclusion of the three-day visit, it wasn’t the colossal public works projects that were most impressive. Most impressive was the government’s commitment and will to protect its people.
Like Louisiana, the Dutch suffered a horrible storm and flood in 1953 that claimed 1,800 people. From that moment on, the nation pledged that a similar disaster would never happen again.
It formed a commission, the Delta Commission, to come up with a storm-protection plan. In 1957, the nation passed legislation embarking on a 50-year plan to provide the necessary storm protection to back up its pledge.
For Jaap Schoof, the government has lived up to that commitment. Schoof is the curator of The 1953 Flood Museum and a survivor of the devastation. Today, he takes solace in the fact that the government has gone to great lengths to ensure no similar disasters will occur. “We are safe enough,” he said.
Getting that kind of commitment from the U.S. government is the challenge for Louisiana’s political leaders. To employ the Dutch system — 50 times stronger than current New Orleans protection —would cost $18 billion today in the United States.
So far, the will and commitment that the Dutch display are lacking from the U.S. government. Heck, the state just received $2.9 billion to bring its levees up to the protection standards they were supposed to be before Hurricane Katrina hit. And the state has failed to get the federal government to commit to providing protections for a Category 5 hurricane, although an $8 million study has been approved.
That Donald Powell, the federal coordinator for Gulf coast rebuilding, didn’t make the Netherlands trip was unfortunate. As the representative of President Bush, Powell should find his way over to the nation to get a feel for that federal will and commitment that is necessary in Louisiana. His chief of staff, Andrew Stirling, seemed to walk away a believer.
“It’s an impressive system,” Stirling said. “We have a lot to learn from this.”
But is the American public, the Congress and President Bush willing to help a small corner of the country that lives below sea level?U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., recognizes the challenge.
Vitter realizes that in the Netherlands, water control is a chief priority because without it, 70 percent of the country would be flooded. In America, the government would be protecting 1 percent to 2 percent of the U.S. population.
Vitter and others in the Louisiana delegation are convinced that the solution to supporting coastal protection and fighting erosion is securing a steady stream of funding. They propose that 25 percent to 50 percent of the gas and oil royalties that pass through Louisiana be given to Gulf Coast states, which amounts to up to $3 billion a year.
The price to restore the state’s wetlands has been set at $14 billion.
Some members of the Louisiana delegation believe that Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco should play hardball with the federal government when it soon comes time to renew oil and gas leases on federal lands in the Outer Continental Shelf in the Gulf of Mexico.
Asked last week if she was willing to challenge the White House on it, Blanco smiled wryly.
“Sometimes you volunteer people in a way they want to become volunteers,” Blanco said.
Vitter acknowledges that, practically speaking, the White House isn’t going to be willing to part with $3 billion going into the federal treasury each year. It is going to be up to Louisiana politicians to convince them otherwise.
Adam Sharp, an aide to U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., helped coordinate the Netherlands excursion. Sharp said Dutch officials have made the necessary commitment with the memory of the disastrous flood of 1953 lingering.“They said ‘never again,’” Sharp said.
