La. Spending on Coastal Infrastructure Paid Off in Francine

TNS — After taking a helicopter tour of areas damaged by Hurricane Francine, Gov. Jeff Landry praised the state’s investment in coastal protection and levee infrastructure, calling them the reason the Category 2 storm mostly spared Louisiana from the level of devastation inflicted by other recent hurricanes.

“I feel a lot better today than when the storm was bearing down on us,” Landry said Thursday outside the Terrebonne Parish Emergency Operations Center in Gray. “There are people out there who we need to get resources to. That number is probably not as great as it could have been. God has given us just as much as we can handle.”

Francine struck Louisiana near Morgan City late Wednesday, leaving hundreds of thousands across the state without power and flooding homes in the River Parishes and metro New Orleans area. Yet the low-lying coastal area that Landry visited Thursday — which took the brunt of Hurricane Ida’s wrath in 2021 — appeared to have escaped the worst.

Roadways in that area still had water on their shoulders Thursday afternoon. Many residents had lost power. But the bayou region appeared largely intact.

“Just imagine what would’ve happened if the American taxpayer, the Terrebonne taxpayer, the Louisiana taxpayer had not invested in levee protection, in protecting our grid,” U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R- Madisonville, told reporters in Gray.

Earlier, Landry met with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and local leaders to discuss the storm’s effects on the area. He will tour other storm-damaged communities on foot tomorrow.

That Louisiana escaped the worst from Francine, Landry and Kennedy argued, shows the strength of investments in the state’s coastal and anti-flooding infrastructure — something they say should translate to lower flood insurance premiums.

Pushing President Joe Biden’s administration to lower those premiums has been a common battle cry for Landry and other Louisiana conservatives.

“We’ve gotta get credit for what we’ve already invested in,” Kennedy said Thursday.

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