Louisiana’s congressional delegation has joined Gov. John Bel Edwards in asking for the federal government to take on a bigger share of the cost for flood response and recovery for both the August disaster in southern Louisiana and the March deluge in northern, central and southern Louisiana, The News-Star reports.
The delegation—Republican Sens. David Vitter and Bill Cassidy and Reps. Ralph Abraham, R-Alto; Steve Scalise, R-New Orleans; John Fleming, R-Minden; Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans; and Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette—made the request in a letter sent to Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate on Friday.
They asked for the feds to bump up their share of the costs from 75% to 90% and include both floods as one. Abraham has seen 22 of the 24 parishes in his 5th District declared major disasters in the March and August floods.
“We’ve been hurt mightily by these two disasters,” says Abraham. “We are all Louisianians. We want to make sure nobody gets left out of the box.”
Thirty-six parishes were declared federal disaster areas in the March flood. Twenty have been declared in the August flood, but the summer flood affected higher populated areas, thus causing more damage.
Each of the six congressional districts has had at least one parish flood this year. Some parishes have been affected by both flood events.
FEMA uses a formula to determine its share of disaster recoveries. To reach a 90% share, damage must reach the level of $137 per capita. With 4.6 million people in Louisiana, the total would have to reach $637 million.
“We’ll shatter that in both events,” Abraham says.
