Thomas Ellis lives in the Monticello neighborhood in north Baton Rouge. Most of the houses around there got several feet of water after last August's flood. Ellis is still working on his.

"Well of course I got 47 inches. Actually one side of the house got 47 the other got 43, I don't know why, but we lost everything," Ellis said, and he's terrified it will happen again.

"Every time it rains, I run up to the river and look at it."

The Parish is working to make sure it doesn't happen again.

"The last time we did any major work to the drainage system was over 20 years ago," said Thomas Stevens, chief design and construction engineer for the parish.

Earlier in the summer Mayor Broome requested a thorough review of the city's drainage system in an effort to prevent future flooding like last August.

Today, the EBR board met with three different engineering firms to hear pitches on how each plans to solve the city's storm water drainage issues

"The combination of rainfall and backwater is a pretty complex hydrologic situation, so you need the right tools to model that situation," said one of the firms.

Board memberStevens says he wants company with prior experience.

"What I"m looking for is a company that has experience with other communities in looking at their entire drainage system from the standpoint of both water quality mindfulness and efficiency in drainage,"

As of today, the board has selected HNTB engineering firm to handle the project. The next step in the process is for the city to negotiate with the firm. If they cannot come to the same terms, the board will vote on a different company.