BATON ROUGE - Construction finally started on clearing drainage canals nearly six years  after the flood of 2016. 

Work has started to clean Jones Creek, one of the five focus areas.

Mayor Sharon Weston-Broome has a lot of initiatives under her administration. Reducing flooding is one of those, and it's personal. 

“She flooded in 2017, along with one third of this population in East Baton Rouge Parish. She understands very much what people go through,” Mark Armstrong, the Mayor’s chief communications officer, said.

Work just started on the lower Jones Creek canal, which sits feet away from a neighborhood. 

“The Amite backs into our lakes, so that is where flooding is a problem,” Darla Hartley, a neighboring resident, said.

The parish is trying to reduce and eliminate flooding during heavy rainfalls by improving drainage.

“It's a project to clean and enhance 50 miles of our most important drainage ways in East Baton Rouge parish,” Armstrong explained. 

Jones Creek, Ward Creek, Bayou Fountain, Black Water Bayou and Beaver Bayou are the five areas the city-parish will focus their efforts on. 

“Combined, these 5 tributaries drain roughly three quarters of the entire parish,” Armstrong said. 

During the 2016 flood, Hartley's home did not flood. But her mom, whose home is right behind hers, did.

 “She got about maybe a foot of water, and so we just had to redo her floors and about two feet of sheetrock,” she explained. 

But for all homeowners, the work being done is a long time coming. 

“I never knew there was so much trash and old logs until they made this pile that's like 20 feet up in the air, so obviously it's something that needs to be done,” Hartley said. 

Thursday morning, the mayor's office is hosting a groundbreaking ceremony as this is the beginning of the Flood Risk Reduction Project.

Bayou Fountain and Ward Creek are next.