Experts join locals to plan for Resilience Lab

Resilience Lab planning will begin this month, according to St. Mary Excel.
Local stakeholders (a diversified group of community leaders) will be joined by persons from Tulane’s Bywater Institute, the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, LSU, Nicholls State University, LUMCON, the Corps of Engineers, BTNEP, and more to address anticipated storm, water, and economic events of the local and regional area.
Resilience is the ability to anticipate, prepare, and respond to significant multi-hazard threats, such as the recently experienced storm event, Hurricane Francine.
Political decisions which greatly affect our area, such as diverting 30% of the Mississippi River through the Atchafalaya River, make Resilience Lab planning more urgent. Rising tides, hurricane hits, riverine flooding, and increasing insurance rates reveal the area’s vulnerabilities. Our most recent hurricane, Francine, was a small hurricane by hurricane standards.
"This Water-Institute-led process, supported by coastal scientists and policy makers, will strengthen our community’s anticipation/preparation/response for coastal Atchafalaya residents and businesses," St. Mary Excel said.
Since 2019, St. Mary Excel has acted on recommendations from a community-funded Urban Land Institute economic development report entitled: "Building the Foundation for a New Economy Along the Atchafalaya River."
ULI brought in an outside team of experts to review data and interview residents for building a new economy along the Atchafalaya River. Since 2019, SME has met with government and philanthropic organizations to discuss and advance recommendations made by the outside team. One such recommendation for creating a diversified new economy was a resilience lab.
St. Mary Excel requested St. Mary Parish federal funds to advance the lab development. In 2021 a parish council public hearing was held allowing the parish to spend federal dollars. The St. Mary Parish Council voted for the parish to partner with the Water Institute (of the Gulf) to plan Morgan City’s resilience lab. See: https://www.stmarynow.com/news-local-business/public-comment-sought-pari...
Finally, in August 2024, the parish signed a contract with The Water Institute, an independent, non-profit organization that solves the complex problems of anticipated storm and water events in the coastal Morgan City area. Working together to identify problems and come up with solutions can be a blueprint of resilience for the entire state and country. In a resilient community, threats pose minimal damage to resident social well-being, the economy, the infrastructure, and flooding risks.
Get ready to be involved in storm proofing our community infrastructure! Refer to St. Mary Excel’s YouTube page and stmaryexcel.com for past meetings and future updates on resilience planning.
www.youtube.com/@st.maryexcel9075