Federal Government Allocates Funding for Hazard Mitigation in Louisiana

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and Rep. Garret Graves (R-LA) announced in April that the federal government will allocate an additional $1.213 billion in Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding for hazard mitigation projects in parishes that were impacted by the 2016 floods.

“This new investment from HUD is critically important to our rebuilding efforts. It will allow us to make investments in flood risk reduction and infrastructure projects in areas of our state that were devastated by the 2016 floods, including partnering with the Army Corps of Engineers to make investments in large-scale projects such as the Comite River Diversion Canal. Once we have the full details from the federal government regarding how these funds can be spent, we will work with stakeholders and local governments to determine what projects to fund and outline our plan to HUD,” said Governor Edwards.

“This is one of the largest flood protection, mitigation and resiliency disaster appropriations made to the state of Louisiana in history and brings the sum of federal recovery dollars for Louisiana’s 2016 floods to more than 10 billion, enabling us to advance critical projects that have been stagnant for far too long – projects like Comite, West Shore, Upper Barataria Risk Reduction and Morganza to the Gulf,” Graves said. “Additionally, this funding can be used to clear the debris in bayous, ditches and other drainage waterways in East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Ascension and other vulnerable areas to further protect families and businesses. It’s time to stop expecting people to just rebuild every time there’s a flood and raise their insurance rates – we have to make our communities stronger.”

This funding was appropriated through the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which became law on February 9, 2018.