American taxpayers to cover Hurricane Ike debris removal costs in Louisiana

Governor Jindal announces FEMA will cover 100 percent of debris removal efforts after Hurricane Ike; State and local agencies cost share dropped to 10 percent for rebuilding work under the Public Assistance Program

Jul 01, 2009 -- BATON ROUGE – Today, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has dropped the state’s cost share for Hurricane Ike response and recovery operations, which the state estimates could save state and local agencies between $15 million and $20 million.

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Language in a recent supplemental bill passed by Congress directed FEMA to drop the state’s cost-share burden for the Public Assistance program for Hurricane Ike, which struck Louisiana just days after

Hurricane Gustav hit last fall. For Categories A and B of the program, which cover emergency measures the state takes before, during and after a storm and debris removal, the federal government will now cover 100 percent of the costs. For the remaining categories, which include permanent rebuilding work, the federal government now will cover 90 percent of the cost, an increase from the original 75 percent cost-share.

Governor Jindal said, “This change potentially could save our state and local agencies between $15 million and $20 million as they struggle to bear the burden of recovery and rebuilding after four major hurricanes in three years.”

“This change represents strong progress in moving the state’s recovery efforts forward; however, our state and local agencies still face more than $100 million in matching costs for the response and recovery from hurricanes Gustav and Ike. Because no state has faced such destruction in such a short time period, the federal government should cover 100 percent of the costs of these recovery programs, as it did after hurricanes Katrina and Rita,” Jindal said. “We also are working with our Congressional delegation to insert language in an upcoming bill that would allow communities to use their allocations of Community Development Block Grants to help cover some of their matching costs, should full federal support never come.”

“So far, more than 10.5 million cubic yards of storm debris has been removed in Louisiana, but only debris from Hurricane Ike is fully paid for by the federal government. This creates bureaucratic red tape for our state and local agencies, as they account for storm debris from two storms, with differing levels of federal support,” Jindal said.

For Hurricane Gustav, the federal government covers 90 percent of costs associated with all categories of FEMA Public Assistance, including debris removal. Louisiana has repeatedly requested full federal cost share for both Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike response and recovery efforts.

Source: Louisiana Governor