DENHAM SPRINGS - On December 12, the class settlement for injunctive relief involving the 2016 floods in East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parishes was granted preliminary approval.

"Injunctive relief is where the court orders the defendant to fix something," Joseph Bruno Sr, one of the plaintiff's attorneys, said.

This class settlement involves a 19-mile stretch of a concrete median crash barrier along I-12 from the Amite River to Colyell Creek. The lawsuit alleges the construction of the median disrupted the flow of water during the floods, causing damage to homes and businesses in the area. Bruno said DOTD and the companies who designed and installed the median had the responsibility to not worsen the water conditions in an area that was already a designated flood zone.

"They didn't pay attention to the obligation they had to not make the flooding worse," Bruno said.

Under the settlement agreement, some of the defendants will place more than $21 million dollars in a DOTD Drainage Enhancement Program to make sure the flood of 2016 does not happen again.

"The better play was to take the money, not waste it on transactional costs, and give it to DOTD with the goal of fixing the problem," Bruno said.

Bruno said the claims for damages were dropped from the lawsuit earlier in the year because it would be difficult to prove how much of the damage was caused by the median.

"It didn't make sense to spend $10,000 just to see if a person had a case," Bruno said.

Donna Jennings is the Director for Main Street in Denham Springs and was in the area during the 2016 flood. She said some of the buildings on this street in the Antique Village flooded, but others did not.

"We had 40 percent of the village flooded to a great extent. We've got pictures of boats going down the middle of Range Avenue. That'll tell you a little about what happened," Jennings said.

She said it would be hard for some areas to make it through another flood like the one in 2016.

"If people can do it from the heart and join together like they did with the last flood, then yes. If they can't because they are tired from the last flood, no way," Jennings said.

The final hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2025.