Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter and other community leaders will officially launch a unified effort Tuesday to advocate for appropriate federal response in the wake of Hurricanes Laura and Delta. Governor Edwards said while FEMA has been on the ground working, the area desperately needs community development block grant funding to assist residents.
“That’s how we go in and mitigate against future storms and more importantly that’s how we get people back into permanent housing, which is the single most important thing,” said Edwards.
Senator Bill Cassidy said there were several natural disasters in 2020 across the country in addition to those which impacted Louisiana, like wildfires in the west. Cassidy said the Louisiana delegation has met with the Biden administration and other members of Congress about funding.
“Now it isn’t that we don’t want to get this done, it’s that we have to have 60 Senators who will vote for it and the (Biden) Administration that will agree to it and that’s been the challenge,” said Cassidy.
In addition to two hurricanes, southwest Louisiana has also been impacted by two other federal disasters, the February winter storms and the May 17th flooding this year.
Edwards said the state has demonstrated $3 billion of unmet needs and he’s spoken with state congressional members and others at the White House. Edwards said he’s very disappointed the area still does not have a disaster appropriation yet.
“I believe there is a reasonable chance that we will get on in the month of August, which is certainly better late than never, but that’s a full year after the storm,” said Edwards.
Today is the 11-month anniversary of Laura making landfall in Louisiana. Hunter will hold a press conference at 10 am today at the Lake Charles Civic Center.
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