The LSU AgCenter says crawfish farmers will have to wait until the harvest this winter to see how much the flood impacted them. Halen Doughty has more…
CUT 1 (30) “I’m Halen Doughty”
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The dean of Louisiana’s Congressional delegation does not believe that previous votes against a Hurricane Sandy relief package will prevent an aid package for Louisiana flood victims. Jeff Palermo has the story
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The Army Corps of Engineers says the Comite River Diversion Project in the East Baton Rouge parish would not have reduced flooding in south Louisiana as much as some people think. Emelie Gunn has more…
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State agencies are severely understaffed at a time when people need them the most. West Monroe Senator Mike Walsworth says during tough budget times, there were employment cutbacks at the Department of Children and Family Services and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Preparedness, because Louisiana hasn’t seen a hurricane in several years.
Walsworth says Louisiana is the most disaster prone state in the nation, and we need to be prepared for these kinds of events. He says they may need to look into training state retirees in case of emergencies.
Walsworth says people are still waiting on disaster food stamps, and he’s worried about kids who are not in school, because if they were, they could get at least one good meal every day. He says DCFS is having trouble opening DSNAP locations because many of them are working at shelters.
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After the agriculture businesses took a $110 million hit from the flood, crawfish farmers will have to wait to see how much their harvest was affected. LSU AgCenter aquaculture specialist, Mark Shirley, says some fields that were only flooded for a day or two should be alright. But he says fields that had more water could see some losses.
Shirley says right now female crawfish are usually burrowing down in the fields to lay their eggs. But he says the flood waters may have pushed some of them out.
Crawfish began laying eggs in late August and continue through November or early December. Shirley says farmers need to get the water out of the fields to keep predators away when the eggs start to hatch.
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US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro and the administrator from the Small Business Administration Maria Contreras-Sweet say the federal government is committed to the flood recovery in Louisiana. The two of them toured damaged areas of the Baton Rouge area yesterday. Contreras-Sweet reminds flood victims they can apply for low interest loans to repair their damaged home or business…
Castro says he supports the temporary housing solutions offered by Governor John Bel Edwards. He says the federal government learned many lessons from Katrina, which has led to better produced manufactured homes for displaced residents…
A FEMA spokesperson says manufactured homes have arrived in Baton Rouge and will be set up soon. Castro hopes a lot of the flood victims can take advantage of the shelter at home program, which gives a homeowner a chance to live in their residence as repairs to their home continue…
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Some people have suggested that if the Comite River Diversion Project in East Baton Rouge Parish had been completed, the flooding wouldn’t have been so severe. But the Army Corps of Engineers says that’s not the case. Deputy District Commander Mark Wingate says the project would only have helped a small part of the affected region.
Wingate says the project would have helped on the Comite River, but not the Amite or other rivers in the basin that also flooded. He says it would have reduced flooding in areas around Joor Road, but not very much in Denham Springs or farther south.
The Comite project would cost upwards of $220 million. Wingate says what they need is a system wide approach to prevent flooding in the region. He says flood mitigation projects are also needed along the Amite River and Bayou Manchac.