Residents, council and engineers press for regional fixes after flash floods in New Iberia area

Public officials, residents and engineers at the Iberia Parish Council meeting on May 14 clashed over how to stop repeated street- and house‑flooding tied to Tbayou and nearby channels.

Ricky Gonsaland, who identified himself as mayor pro tem of the city of New Iberia during public comment, accused parish government of failing to translate years of drainage-tax receipts into relief for city neighborhoods. “Over the last 9 years we paid $7,400,000 into the drainage fund. Tell me where $7,400,000 has been spent on the tributaries that drain our city,” he said, urging the council to hire private contractors and “drain, baby, drain.”

Later, resident Justin Swallow described flooding on Plantation Drive that he said came from a relatively small rainfall: “We’re only talking about 2 to 3 inches… I probably could have been safe if T Bayou would be cleaned out.” Swallow told the joint committee he lost his floors and has no flood insurance.

Parish officials and engineers pushed back on the notion that simple channel cleaning will solve the problem. The parish president said the administration is working with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) and Royal (Royal Engineering) on modeling and large-scale projects, and cautioned that some fixes must extend beyond parish lines: “We’re working right now with CPRA… It’s a lot involved and this is actually gonna deal with the corps of engineers,” the parish president said.

Retired public‑works official Leroy Landry, called by a council member to explain technical constraints, told the committee that silt at the lake mouth and an eight‑foot high sill make outflow limited and that any durable fix at the lake mouth would require Corps involvement and likely cost millions. “If you as a parish decide to put up money to clean T Bayou… what good does that do if we don't address the lake first?” he asked.

Council members and public‑works staff repeatedly described the problem as regional and multi‑layered: high-intensity rainfall events, tidal influence, silted downstream outfalls and the need for retention or detention areas to store storm runoff until it can be released safely. Several council members noted retention ponds in nearby jurisdictions have reduced local flooding and urged the parish to identify potential sites, fund property acquisition or leases, and set construction standards for future subdivisions.

The public‑works committee heard photographic and video evidence of flooded homes and streets in the L Armentor/Highway 88 area and were told that cleaning and digging alone “is not gonna cut us.” Committee discussion produced two immediate procedural outcomes: the council asked the CPRA/engineers to prepare more detailed plans and proposals and invited them to return to present options and estimated costs; a separate standalone resolution that would have directed Public Works to perform an immediate Tbayou study was removed from the agenda by committee vote.

What happens next: officials said they will convene engineers (the parish referenced Ben Longlin/Longlinet and Royal Engineering) and seek a broad master plan that looks at lake outfall constraints, lateral channels, detention/retention needs and potential federal or regional matches. No firm start date for major construction was set at the meeting.

Funding and scope caveats: speakers repeatedly stressed that significant lake‑mouth or Corps‑level work is expensive and will require CPRA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers participation; parish officials said available local funds are insufficient to cover the most extensive fixes without outside grants or partnerships.

The committee discussion closed with an explicit pledge to bring engineers back to brief the council on a prioritized plan and cost estimates rather than rely solely on incremental ditch‑cleaning.