BATON ROUGE — Since the 2016 flood, East Baton Rouge Parish has removed 7,800 tons of debris from the Comite River and 25 million pounds of material from drainage canals and structures.

Storm Station chief meteorologist Dr. Josh Eachus looked at how the parish is preparing for the next major flood event.

The work included pipe cleaning, roadside ditch digging and storm drain box repairs, all funded in part through American Rescue Act dollars. Officials say clearing the underground storm drain pipes was among the most critical parts of the effort because blockages there are often invisible until flooding occurs.

Baton Rouge Transportation and Drainage Director Fred Raiford has been working alongside other parish leaders since 2016, clearing and draining major waterways such as Jones Creek and Bayou Fountain.

"I've never seen as many refrigerators," Raiford said. "I mean, I would say we probably had over a thousand of refrigerators and more tires than a tire dealership would want to deal with because people, that's where they look to dispose a lot of stuff."

The parish also partnered with Ascension Parish to heavily clean Bayou Manchac. Ward Creek, another key drainage channel, was addressed as well and there are future plans to widen it near the Siegen Lane overpass, a project that could drop water levels by a foot.

"We're probably going to have to come in and do some retention that's storing water in locations, doing peak rain events until the channels drain out and then it lets it out over a period of time," Raiford said. "All those things we're looking at. And part of that is part of the hazard mitigation funds that we were able to secure because of the 2016 flood."

The 2016 flood was considered a 1,000-year flood, though that term can be misleading. More accurately, that storm had a 0.001 chance of happening in any given year, meaning it could happen again at any time.

Raiford said he monitors conditions near trouble spots every time it rains heavily.

"Hey. I mean this rain we had two weeks ago, they said it wasn't a problem at all," Raiford said. "And I said what we've did must have worked. So I think that's, that's a plus from my perspective."

Raiford said the work will be ongoing and that new revenue will be needed to keep up with the parish's drainage needs.

"And that's the one reason why we certainly are going to be looking for some new revenue," Raiford said. "And I'm not sure how that's going to come to pass. But I mean realistically we can really improve the actual infrastructure by just cleaning out the existing stuff that we have."

"There are going to be multiple projects that can at least help reduce the flood risk," he said. "I never want to tell people you ain't got to worry about flooding anymore because that is, that's not true. Because there's a rainstorm that will come that will challenge our system."

There are currently more than $150 million in projects waiting on FEMA approval, with eight of 10 proposed projects ready to move into the construction phase once that approval comes through. There is also a plan for continuous maintenance of parish drainage.