Baton Rouge, La.: Louisiana will receive $595 million in federal disaster block grant assistance to help with habitat restoration and other recovery needs from last year’s Hurricane Laura and Delta’s back-to-back blows, according to the state’s Two US senators made the announcement on Tuesday.
The funding fell far short of multi-billion dollar estimates of the need, welcomed by officials to be critical to the rebuilding effort in southwest Louisiana, offering only 20% of the $3 billion in aid requested by the government. does. John Bel Edwards.
It also comes 14 months after Laura ravaged the Lake Charles area, a delay in which locals questioned whether the nation had forgotten them.
It’s been more than a year since Louisiana was hit by Hurricane Laura, and relief has taken a long time, Republican US Sen. Bill Cassidy said in a statement. This funding is a welcome first step, but there is still more work to do to get Southwest Louisiana back to perfection.
GOP US Sen. John Kennedy said money will provide a helping hand when we rebuild.
He said in a statement that Louisianans are still grappling with the damage left by Laura and Delta.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will oversee block grant aid, which will require the state to outline plans for spending the money and obtain federal approval of the plans. The state office for community development will oversee the spending.
Federal disaster aid was included in legislation passed by Congress last month that also helped avoid government shutdowns. Billions of rupees were set aside for disaster relief in many states. Louisiana was waiting to receive its specific allocation figures.
Laura struck the Southwestern Parganas as a severe Category 4 hurricane on August 27, 2020. Less than two months later, Delta swept over the same area as the Category 2 hurricane. There was a historic flood in May. In southwest Louisiana, homes still have blue wires and roofs awaiting repair, businesses have piled up and some neighborhoods look almost abandoned. Thousands remain displaced.
The region has received hundreds of millions of dollars in disaster assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help those in short-term needs and replace damaged government buildings. But the block grant assistance would help with long-term housing assistance and other reconstruction work that did not qualify for FEMA assistance.
After the first estimates emerged about what Louisiana would receive for Laura and Delta recovery, Lake Charles Mayor Nick Hunter described the block grant money in a Facebook post as grossly insufficient to account for outstanding recovery issues, but he Also said it would make a dent. We need great accommodation.
Cassidy has said that the congressional delegation will continue to make the case for more federal aid for southwest Louisiana, but he said it would be difficult to achieve.
Louisiana is also hoping to receive additional Disaster Block grant aid for its recovery from Hurricane Ida, which struck the southeastern parishes as a Category 4 hurricane on August 29 and left an extensive trail of damage.
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Follow Melinda Deslette on Twitter at http://twitter.com/melindadeslatte.
Disclaimer: This post has been self-published from the agency feed without modification and has not been reviewed by an editor
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