Their homes flooded 40 years ago. Soon, they'll share a $101.5 million settlement

After waiting 40 years, the victims of a Tangipahoa Parish flood caused by construction practices along a then-new stretch of Interstate 12 will soon see compensation from the state for the damages they endured.

District Judge Jeff Johnson has given final approval to a $101.5 million class-action settlement for the victims of a 1983 flood and their families. With the approval, litigation is now over for the 1,246 victims, 400 families and 96 businesses affected.

About a third of the victims have died since the floods in 1983.

"It was a rather happy and sad day," said Rep. Bill Wheat, a Ponchatoula Republican who testified in Johnson's courtroom Tuesday. "Happy that we're bringing this to closure after so many years of it hanging out there, … sad in the sense that when you look into the crowd you didn't see some of the faces that could have finally had closure."

It was April 6, 1983, when heavy rains caused 6,000 homes to flood across the Baton Rouge region. In Tangipahoa Parish, the newly built Interstate 12 disrupted the natural flow of water through swamps into Lake Maurepas and Lake Pontchartrain, causing the water to instead divert into Ponchatoula.

Flooding in that area was unheard of prior to 1983; few of the residents and business owners in the area had any flood insurance to protect them.

A Tangipahoa Parish jury ruled in favor of the flood victims in 1999, saying the interstate highway should have crossed the Tangipahoa River at a higher elevation. The panel awarded $92 million in damages.

However, the state Department of Transportation and Development delayed the payments for years by filing appeals, bringing the owed payment amount up to $330 million with interest factored in, Wheat said.

Following negotiations between the victims and the Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration, a legislative committee approved the final settlement amount in September.

"We wanted to figure out a way to make it happen, but at the same time there's a lot of other needs in the state," Wheat said. "I think we landed on a figure that's the best we could have possibly done."

Only a few legal steps remained after that before victims could begin receiving payments, the last of which being Tuesday's fairness hearing, where the judge determined that the settlement agreement was fair and accurate.

"It was a great day for the class. No doubt about it," said Jean-Paul Layrisson, an attorney for the victims. "Having the judge gavel down on the settlement was a great day."

Ther court still must complete an administrative process for doling out payments, like creating formulas for how much to pay each victim and finding out who inherits the settlement money for each deceased victim.

Layrisson said the court did not give an estimate for just how long that process will take.

"We want it done as fast as possible, but we also want it done correctly," Layrisson said. "It's a process."

Interstate 12's design continues to be criticized for causing more severe, more widespread damage to Tangipahoa Parish, including during the 2016 floods.