(The Center Square) − Louisiana will receive $479.8 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency grants to help recover from hurricanes in recent years and mitigate against future storms.
The grants, announced by U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, will fund restoration and hazard-mitigation projects tied to Hurricanes Isaac, Laura, Zeta, Ida and Francine, along with costs linked to saltwater intrusion and additional storms and flooding. The hurricanes hit the state’s coastline from 2020 to 2024.
“This $479.8 million will help communities across our state recover … by supporting critical repairs, debris removal, emergency response, and key infrastructure projects,” Kennedy said in a statement.
The single biggest recipient is the South Louisiana Electric Cooperative Association, which will receive about $105.9 million to repair transmission and distribution infrastructure damaged after Ida made landfall 90 miles south of New Orleans in 2021. The money will help restore power lines serving the Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma and cover mitigation and financing costs, a news release said.
The largest state-agency total listed is for the Office of Risk Management, which accounts for about $104.0 million across the hurricanes, including a $75.7 million award under Hurricane Zeta for the West Belle Pass Barrier Headland Restoration Project in the Terrebonne Basin barrier island system. The money will also go toward repair work tied to Ida, Laura and Francine and flooding.
Jefferson Parish, just outside New Orleans, is one of the largest parish-level beneficiaries. It will receive over $59.6 million to replace a 41-mile water line damaged in the storm, along with construction of a new valve station and related mitigation work.
More than $17.8 million is earmarked for debris removal along Bayou Barataria’s waterways, and $11.5 million to repair the storm-surge damaged water line between Lafitte and Grand Isle.
The parish will receive $4.27 million to replace the Rose Thorne Gymnasium in Lafitte and $1.4 million for demolition and debris monitoring of homes deemed at risk of collapse. Smaller grants will go toward repairs at Jefferson Parish public-school facilities in Westwego, Harahan and Marrero.
Jefferson Parish also appears under a separate category for saltwater intrusion, with more than $1 million listed for management costs.
In New Orleans, FEMA is providing more than $3 million to the Orleans Levee District Non-Flood Protection Asset Management Authority to restore the South Shore Harbor Marina with flood-mitigation measures. Nearly $3 million is going to the New Orleans Sewerage and Water Board for wastewater treatment.
