BATON ROUGE (AP) — Louisiana is submitting its plan to spend $438 million in federal flood recovery aid, a move Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration says should have money flowing by April.
Nearly all the money, under the plan being sent Friday to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, will go to homeowners for repairs from the March and August floods.
Pat Forbes, the governor's leader on disaster recovery, says an estimated 4,000 households will share in that money. The dollars will largely go to elderly, low- to moderate-income homeowners without flood insurance.
Smaller slices of the financing will pay for assistance to renters and businesses.
Republicans have criticized Edwards for moving too slowly to distribute the aid, allocated by Congress in September. The Edwards administration blames a lengthy federal regulatory process.
– by AP Reporter Melinda Deslatte
