on Aug 28, 2025

HR&A CEO Jeff Hébert on Building Resilience for New Orleans in Smart Cities Dive and BisNow

“Hurricane Katrina was a wake-up call about the heightened intensity of storms and what that amount of water could do. In its wake, city, state, and federal officials set out to make sure that type of engineering catastrophe would never happen again.”

 

HR&A Advisors CEO Jeff Hébert, who served as New Orleans’ first Chief Resilience Officer from 2012 to 2017, shared his thoughts in this recent Smart Cities Dive article, which traces New Orleans’ centuries-long battle against flooding and hurricanes, from its first levees in the 1700s to today’s multi-billion-dollar storm protection systems. Nearly 20 years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans continues to grapple with the challenges of climate change, sea level rise, and subsidence.

 

The piece also highlights how communities, advocacy groups, and city leaders are combining gray and green infrastructure solutions — from reinforced levees and pumping stations to bioswales, stormwater parks, and wetlands restoration — to build a safer and more resilient future.

Jeff also shared insights into the immediate recovery efforts in this piece from BisNow which examines how New Orleans’ commercial real estate market has navigated rebuilding over the past two decades.

 

Read the full articles:

After Katrina, green infrastructure aims to supplement the rebuilt — but still vulnerable — levees  —  Smart Cities Dive

20 Years After Katrina, Hotels Define New Orleans. Everything Else Barely Registers — BisNow