Louisiana’s top recovery official said today he has “every reason to believe” the state will receive the money it needs to recover from widespread flooding last year, as leaders piece together a plan for rebuilding with fewer dollars than they say are necessary.
Pat Forbes, executive director of the state’s Office of Community Development, outlined the most updated version of the plan to spend the $1.6 billion already allocated to Louisiana for flood recovery. That money, which is allocated by Congress and administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, is less than the nearly $4 billion Gov. John Bel Edwards requested from Congress.
“We think we have a real strong case for the funding,” Forbes said after speaking to the Press Club of Baton Rouge today.
Forbes also said the pace of the recovery from the August flood has been the fastest he has ever seen. The funding and rebuilding processes after hurricanes Ike, Katrina and Rita and Superstorm Sandy all took longer than the current process, he said, largely because Louisiana has had a good deal of practice with disasters.
“We’re moving as fast or faster than any other disaster process has ever moved,” Forbes said, citing the speed with which the state’s congressional delegation secured funding and the state wrote its action plan. But at the public comment period for the state’s plan in Baton Rouge in December, residents lamented the slow pace of flood aid.
Forbes also noted that after Sandy in 2012, New Jersey received well over $3.7 billion, which is what Edwards has requested from Congress, and the state had a similar number of victims to Louisiana last year.
State officials have been navigating a process dictated by a number of federal rules, and have come up with three scenarios for how to spend the money. The first scenario awards those making from 0% to 80% of area median income all of the costs to repair their homes, and those making more progressively would receive less money.
The second option is to give those making up to 120% of area median income all of the money they need, and anyone making more than that would receive only half of what they need. The last option would place a $35,000 cap on the amount of money people can receive if they make more than 80% of the area median income.
“When you’re dealing with a $4 billion problem with $1.6 billion, we have to make priority decisions,” Forbes said.
In any of the scenarios, the state will start repairing homes sometime in the late spring or early summer, officials predict. A line of credit will be established in early to mid-May, if all goes according to plan. Edwards plans to return to D.C. twice in the coming months to lobby Congress and the Donald Trump administration for more aid.
—Sam Karlin
