BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Six of Louisiana's coastal parishes will split more than $41 million to pay for projects aimed at fortifying communities against coastal land loss and rising seas.
Ten projects in Jefferson, Lafourche, Plaquemines, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany and Terrebonne parishes will receive a slice of the money for the flood-resilience projects.
Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the full list Tuesday, saying in a statement that the projects "represent the cutting-edge in our efforts to proactively plan for the reality of our state's increasing vulnerability to weather events and coastal erosion."
In Terrebonne Parish, some of the money will pay for voluntary relocation of homeowners who live outside the flood protection system. In Jefferson Parish, dollars will pay for a public park that stores stormwater. Other projects include a coastal ecology education center, street and drainage improvements and model elevated housing.
The federal dollars were given to Louisiana after Hurricane Isaac, which struck the state in 2012. They are funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's National Disaster Resilience Competition.
Edwards' office says Louisiana's projects were chosen after dozens of community outreach events to discuss proposals over a nine-month period.
