Staff reports

Sen. John Kennedy and U.S. Congressman Clay Higgins, both Louisiana Republicans, announced this week that Lake Charles will be receiving an additional $46,498,869 in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for debris removal attributed to the devastation caused by Hurricane Laura nearly a year ago. 

Kennedy is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

“I am grateful that FEMA is reimbursing Lake Charles for the extensive debris removal efforts it undertook after Hurricane Laura hit Southwest Louisiana as a Category 4 storm,” Kennedy said during the announcement. “Louisianians are still picking up the pieces of last hurricane season, and they’re still waiting for the help they deserve from this administration.”

To date, more than 2 million acres of debris has been removed in the wake of the historic storm. 

FEMA reimbursed 90 percent of the removal cost, and the funding is authorized under the Robert T. Stafford Act, Kennedy said. 

Higgins said more than $1.29 billion in disaster relief has now been delivered in response to Hurricanes Laura and Delta.

“This most recent reimbursement provides much-needed support to the city of Lake Charles,” Higgins said. “Our recovery mission is ongoing, and we continue to push for supplemental long-term recovery resources at the federal level.”

 

A debris collection truck unloads its fill Friday afternoon at the Burton Complex. As of April 1, Calcasieu Parish’s debris contractor, Crowder Gulf, was 188 days into its pickup efforts to remove hurricane debris from the 1,200 miles of parish roads. Since Hurricane Laura, trucks have picked up about 6.8 million cubic yards of debris from roads in the parish’s unincorporated areas. Overall, including in municipalities, a total of 12.2 million cubic yards has been collected.

Rick Hickman