Louisiana has been awarded $437.8 million in federal assistance for recovery efforts related to the August flood, U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy says.
The funding, in the form of Community Development Block Grants, accounts for roughly 88% of the $500 million allocation for federal disaster relief included in the continuing resolution Congress approved last week.
Members of the Louisiana congressional delegation and Gov. John Bel Edwards have repeatedly called the allocation a “down payment.”
“This is great news for Louisiana and the thousands of families affected by The Great Flood of 2016, letting them know that more help is on the way,” says Cassidy in a statement. “The entire delegation will continue to make sure that additional aid will be made available so that every Louisianan has what they need to get their lives back.”
The Great Flood of 2016 was a “1,000-year rain” event that began when a slow-moving system dumped as much as 31.39 inches of rain in Watson and 25.5 inches in Denham Springs. Thirteen people died. Tens of thousands of homes flooded. The water destroyed thousands of vehicles.
Edwards estimates that the flood—which at the time of his request for federal assistance in September was the costliest U.S. disaster since Superstorm Sandy—caused roughly $8.7 billion in damages to Louisiana.
