The Louisiana floods last month caused a $8.7 billion in damage, a number that is expected to increase as officials continue to take stock of the damage, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced this week.
Edwards’ office revealed the estimated cost of the flooding damage Saturday when it released a copy of a letter the governor sent President Obama earlier this week.
The governor’s letter to Obama asked for a “very reasonable” $2 billion in federal aid, and said it would be the bare minimum necessary to help the state recover from a flood that claimed the lives of 13 Louisianans.
“While short-term relief for immediate needs available through [Federal Emergency Management Agency] for items such as temporary rental assistance, essential home repairs and other disaster-related needs are greatly needed and greatly appreciated, our full recovery will not be realized without additional help,” Edwards’ letter read.
The storm has drawn a national response from relief organizations and other good Samaritans. It has even caught the attention of the two 2016 presidential candidates.
On the left side, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton tweeted her sympathies and directed social media users to donations pages belonging to groups specializing in offering aid to disaster victims.
On the other side of the aisle, GOP nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, went to Baton Rouge personally to assess the damage and speak with the victims.
At the time, Edwards caught some heat for seemingly referring to Trump’s visit as a shameless photo-op. The Democratic governor later claimed he was not attacking the GOP nominee.
“I didn’t dismiss his trip as a photo op. Before he came down I said I — we welcome him here,” the governor said last month on CNN. “We want him to be helpful and we hope that doesn’t turn into a mere photo op. So you got the story backwards,” he added.
“Okay. So, was he helpful? Now that it’s come and gone, was he helpful? Was it a good thing that he came down?” the CNN reporter continued. The Democratic governor agreed that, yes, Trump’s visit was indeed helpful to the state.
“Yes, for the reasons that I stated earlier because it helped to shine a spotlight on Louisiana and on the dire situation that we have here, that it was helpful,” he said.
“And I will tell you that I also appreciated the good phone call, the conversation that I had with [Indiana] Gov. Pence,” he added in reference to Trump’s running mate, “who was sincere and genuine when he called, and we spoke for a long time on Friday morning about their desire to be helpful.”
As of Friday, there were a reported 50,000 houses in Louisiana damaged by the flood waters, Edwards’ letter to Obama said.
“More than 80 percent of damaged homes lacked flood insurance because most were outside the 100-year flood plain,” the Associated Press reported, adding “the majority of flooded households were for people with low to moderate incomes, and 20 percent were renters.”
The governor said that number of houses damaged by the heavy rains will undoubtedly increase as additional applications pour in and state officials continue to inspect the damage.
“The majority of these citizens did not carry flood insurance, and I impress upon you that they will not be able to make critical decisions on rebuilding their homes and their lives without the availability of CDBG-DR funds,” Edwards wrote to the president. “This additional assistance is critical to Louisiana’s full recovery from these floods.”
He also said that more than 6,000 businesses were damaged, and that more than 1,400 bridges are now in need of inspections. Edwards also told the president that approximately 30 state roads were washed away, and that there is roughly $110 million in damage to agriculture.
The storm, which began on Aug. 12, poured nearly 2 feet of rain in some parts of Louisiana during a 48-hour period, the AP noted, adding, “and the flooding has been described as the worst disaster in the U.S. since Superstorm Sandy struck the East Coast in 2012.”
