PIERRE PART - With hurricane season approaching, the Louisiana Watershed Initiative recently met with Assumption Parish and other region six residents about flooding.

The community meeting focused on future projects and funding, including what residents say is needed to protect them from flooding.

"It brings awareness to flood protection throughout the region by having it right before hurricane season," Region Six Coordinator Patrick Gordon said.

"There are some initiatives taking place that can address the flooding needs in Louisiana," he said.

LWI officials met with residents from Region Six, which includes Iberville, Assumption, Ascension, and several other parishes, to hear what people believe needs to be addressed ahead of the storms.

An Assumption Parish resident explained that in prior years, individual parishes "were fighting over individual funds, fighting against each other to solve the same problems," he said.

"We realize now that if we come together and have a regional plan, we can go together to the state and federal delegations to secure money for our area to have a positive impact on the entire region," he said.

Gordon emphasized that this meeting is key to developing a unified plan throughout the region.

"We are developing a plan to address flooding and how it occurs within the watershed region, not parish by parish, because drainage and flooding have no political boundaries, so we need to have more consistency overall of a plan throughout the watershed region," he said.

He noted that meeting with the community provides valuable insight for future projects.

"We can bring the region together, it's not just locals, it's not the problem. Local is the problem that happens in the parish north of them or the parish north of that parish, if they made a difference to the runoff that occurs within that watershed, and I think you could've seen a lot of changes in the way drainage projects are done once they start utilizing these models," he said.

LWI is asking residents to complete a survey on the watershed plan. You can click here for the link.