Governor Jeff Landry, local officials meet at MSY to discuss Hurricane Francine recovery

Um, certainly I want to say good afternoon. Um, a couple of things I want to point out number one, as we have traveled around the state, certainly around affected areas and around the state. Uh The one thing I can say is that certainly the Lord spared us. I mean, we have not lost any lives due to this storm. And I think that when you think about the responsibility with myself and all of the people around me have, our number one priority is saving lives. And then after saving lives, it's about protecting property as well. And of course, we know that we have had some citizens whose property have been affected. Uh We have been working extremely diligently to make sure that we get the resources necessary so that we can bring those citizens that relief. We're waiting on a declaration from the White House. Uh I've spoken to Secretary Marcu personally, the fema administrator was in Louisiana yesterday. I have, of course, next to me, um Our great majority leader, Steve Scalise who I know represents the entire delegation very well. We have uh Congressman Clay Higgins yesterday, Senator Kennedy joined us today. Senator Cassidy joined us as well. Uh All of them have pledged their support in making sure that we have the resources necessary. Number one, I think the biggest challenge we have had in this storm is utilities, right? Is trying to get the power back on. I want to tell you if you look at where we were right. Post storm, immediately, post storm, we had over 450,000 customers without electricity today. That number has been sliced probably as I stand by 60%. I know we've got um some of our representatives from G here Clio and some of the others as well. They prior to the storm, we worked extremely close with them to make sure that they were prepositioning the assets necessary to get people into the affected areas to get utilities up. Of course, we all know that sometimes that is a challenge based upon the amount of debris. However, I will say that the speed under which they're putting those utilities online comes from the fact that the prior storms have given us an opportunity to build grid resilience. And I think that that's important and I think it's important to remember that that here in Louisiana, we need power that's reliable. OK? And we also need a grid that is resilient when the transmission lines are um are, are built the specification of the storms that we anticipate. You see things like down in Grand Isle where they didn't even lose power this time. Normally they used to lose power when there was a bad thunderstorm again. We want to thank our federal reporters. We want to thank our congressional delegation for helping us in that as well. And, and, and I wanna say this for the citizens of the city of New Orleans prior as we saw this storm moving east, we plugged in the sewage and water board into the go E office to understand what their challenges were at that particular time. When we realized that the level of rainfall that that was occurring in Jefferson Parish, I could tell you, I know Sheriff Le Pinto is here. I woke the poor fella up early in the morning and then I called Cynthia right thereafter just so that we understood the level of resources that we could support both Jefferson Parish and Orleans. We know we all know, right, we got some challenges here in the New Orleans Metropolitan area. Those are challenges that we all recognize. The importance is being honest about those challenges and how we are going to fix them. So I can tell you the meeting that we had in there and, and I'll let Steve um um comment right after was about those particular challenges about how we can recognize where the infrastructure deficiencies are today because we don't know whether we're going to get another storm tomorrow, right? We know we'll have one in the near future. I mean, that's evident we seem to be able to attract the hurricanes in Louisiana, but it doesn't mean that we can't live in peace here as long as we prepare for the level of those storms. Right? And so that's what I think our challenges is I wanna, and, and, and lastly, I wanna say this before I bring Steve up. I am extremely proud of the people who work diligently in both preparation, response and recovery. Ok? The level of communication and support. I really, it, it's unprecedented. I mean, I can tell you from the local to the state to our federal partners as well. That's the kind of success we can have when everyone leans in. Everyone's honest, everyone tells us what they need and then we try to allocate those resources accordingly with that. I would love to bring my good friend Steve Scalise up for a few words. Well, thank you governor and uh especially sharing our first lady. Appreciate you coming as well. Um You know, this storm preparation really started at the beginning of the week. We all saw it coming in and the spaghetti models initially didn't really look at us at all. And then of course, you saw it moving east. Each model moved further and further east. And so we knew at some point, Louisiana was going to take a hit. Um The governor quickly moved to ask for an emergency delegation, uh a declaration and our entire congressional delegation, Congressman Higgins, the whole group. We all came together very quickly to help expedite that and it got approved by the president. And now we are working on a major emergency declaration which still hasn't been approved. But really a lot of that is going to come after assessments come in and we're working with all the parishes and cities, you know, once the storm clears you really then start finding out what the damage is. And so each parish is still assessing that damage and that process will take a few weeks. But ultimately, as the assessments come in, if it meets the criteria, hopefully we can get that major disaster declaration, that's still to come. I mean, we're going to continue working on that. But in the meantime, as we've met with all the parish leaders, uh the mayor of the cities, you know, there's a lot of things that we've identified over the years, we have seen billions of dollars come into our region, some generated locally, a lot coming in from the federal government combined to build a stronger flood protection system so that fewer homes flood. And, and I think you saw the success of that in this storm. You know, first and foremost as the governor mentioned to have no loss of life is the most, most important thing. We don't want to lose anybody and we didn't in the storm and we thank God for that. Uh But after that, then you look at damage to homes, you know, and if you think about hurricane Ida kind of a similar path but a very different storm IDA moved incredibly slow, much stronger winds and it did a lot more damage. A lot more houses were damaged. Uh, a lot more, uh, devastation from this storm. Luckily, it moved through fast with Francine and got out of here, but it dumped a lot of water and a lot of wind in the meantime. And so you had power outages and especially in Kenner, you know, they're still counting the numbers and working through with the families to identify how many homes. But you're, you're already over 100 and 50 approaching 300 homes that got flood water and, you know, you want to work with those families and help them get back on their feet and that's what we do as a community. We're resilient people. We've been through this before and we're going to get through this. But in the meantime, we can also learn, you know, were there things that we can do better at next time? And the parishes are already identifying some areas where some pumps failed, you know, and we've seen this in the past working with the Corps of engineers. Sometimes it's local government pumps, but they're all working together to make sure that it can continue to get better. And if there's federal funds, you know, and there are different pots of money and a lot of federal agencies we've seen resiliency funds over the years be used where you have some federal money partnered with state and local money to help build more resilience. And that's paid real big dividends. You know, Terrebonne and La Fouche. As the governor had talked about earlier, Terre Bone and Lefou didn't have any homes that flooded in the eye of the storm came right over Terrebonne. And so those resiliency dollars have paid massive dividends because ultimately somebody, you know, federal flood insurance, other programs would maybe have to pay billions to help those people if they got damaged and they didn't. So we're, we're thankful for that. But in the meantime, we're going to continue to learn how we can improve those systems. And you know, the work that is being done by the govern by all the parishes and cities is continuing to be very collaborative and forward thinking because there will be things we're going to have to do in the future to build upon what we already have. And our congressional delegation will be there every step of the way to make sure we can identify federal funds that can partner with state and local funds to get this done as quickly as possible. Thank you, Governor. Thank you, madam, mayor, mayor, Mayor New Orleans. Thank you. Thank you. Well, good afternoon. And I just, I wanted to uh say that I'm very proud, uh proud of the residents of the city of New Orleans. Uh who listened uh to all of the information coming from the city and responded accordingly. And of course, our coordinate efforts with the governor governor. Thank you so much. All of our uh united uh efforts are unified command um boots on the ground, no doubt about it. I think this is our opportunity to continue to demonstrate that when we invest big that the results, you see them on the ground. And so for me, I just wanna continue to push for the necessary resources that the city of New Orleans needs relative to our sewage and water board, our power complex and that will ensure that we're better prepared uh for the future, but we're a resilient community and I believe that we were on the front stage of it this time around. But thank you, Governor for your leadership. So thank you, Governor Congressman Scalise. We really appreciate your time. Look with this storm. Um And you, you all heard the flooding that we had in Kenner. Um This was just an incredible amount of rain 7 to 9 inches um on the East Bank, some high is 12 inches. So we did lose some pumping capacity, but we were overwhelmed throughout the East Bank and the lack of those pumps being on the few pumps that were uh were not on. We just took us a little slower time to dewater the area. Yes, we want to thank you. Thank you for taking the time with Mark Drews our public works department to, to really understand what was going on. Obviously, we want to thank everybody for your cooper with the sewer and conserving water because I think the backups were minimized when we had the sewer issue early in the afternoon. So we just want to thank everyone and thank you for really wanting the detail of what happened. Both of you all to understand that and I know you're in the fight with us. So, thank you so much. Thank you two things I want to say uh before we take any questions, number one, I, you know, I know that in property insurance is on everyone's mind. And, and I, and I want to tell you, I had a discussion this morning with the commission of insurance and, and he and I were speaking and I said as I've gone, you know, Tim, one of the things that's amazing is as I've flown through some of the most effective areas yesterday where we flew over ter and the flu lafoe, I could tell you the level of blue tarps that we need in this storm is extremely minimal. Ok. And I think it's because of the resiliency and the, and the reinforcing roof projects and the, and, and the claims that were made and paid out that now are paying dividends for those insurance carriers. And so I, and, and so I think to the insurance carriers, I think that they should look at it and say, look when you pay your claims timely, ok? We can fix our infrastructure up to a code that can withstand these storms and thereby saving you money as well. So there should be no excuse, there really should be no excuse um to increase premiums just because of this storm. In fact, I would submit to you that most of the damage was caused on buildings that had yet to be repaired because policies had not been paid out. Ok? So these were prior problems that we had from hurricane Ida. And then, and, and in that vein, as, as Steve mentioned, we lean forward with the FEMA administrator and the court to say, listen, the works that we've done. Ok? From a levy protection from a flood protection standpoint should credit something in the state of Louisiana. And so those residents that are behind that type of protection should be able to get a credit in the flood plan as well. And then, and then lastly, I just wanna say this, you know, a lot of people out there may say, you know, governor, you did a great job. I did nothing, the credit and the things belongs to the men and women who are actually on the ground, the ones each day and each hour that were preparing for the storm that sat through the storm that worked right after the storm. That is where the thanks in this belong. So again, I want to say thank you to them as well. And with that, we answer in governor of the state in terms of the infrastructure challenges and then leader, could you give us an update on efforts to get a longer term reauthorization of them in F IP? And also, um, forms that, uh, the New Zealand don't, who you wanna go first. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Look, here's, here's, here's what, um, I'll tell you, I think that what the state can do is look at the buckets that are available, right. Look at the federal programs that are out there. There's, there's some Department of Energy. In fact, this, uh, Secretary Grace was here early and he's here looking at the resiliency, um, grants that we can apply for and that we can lean into, um, look at what fa uh can provide for us based upon this particular storm and what else is out there and then try to tie those things together. Right. And again, I think the more we communicate between the local needs, especially when it comes to infrastructure. You know, one of the things I, I wanted to say this, one of the things that we've failed that or seem to have ignored over the last uh few decades is our vital infrastructure like sewage and water. I know we got a water problem in this entire state. And so I think if we refocus our needs on the things that we absolutely have to have, which is rebuilding that infrastructure. We will minimize the problems that we've had today, Steve, you want to answer the national flood. So, you know, if you look at the National Flood insurance program, but especially the changes that were made with risk rating 2.0 which was fema's proposal to supposedly give better rating for homeowners. It's been a complete failure. We have been pressing for over two years for FEMA to just explain how it works. You know, you've got a government run program that the people who are running it for the federal government and the taxpayers of the United States won't even explain what in this black box known as risk rating 2.0 that has resulted in devastating rate hikes for most people in South Louisiana and in many cases, devastating rate hikes that can't be justified. As Governor Landry pointed out communities that did not flood. Now fema should be looking at that and saying, ok, because of the levies that you elevated, the stronger, secure, more secure levies that you have in all of these communities. If risk rating is supposed to be based on risk, then your premium should be lower if you're in a more secure area, not higher. And in some cases, three times four times higher, as we all know, y'all have reported incredibly well, we're going to continue to fight with fem on this. But a few years ago, we in the house were able to pass a fiveyear reauthorization of the NF IP with reforms that would have prevented risk rating 2.0 unfortunately, the bill didn't get through the Senate. And so now we're at a new starting point and it's gotten more complicated because what FM has done while they've sent huge rate hikes to places like South Louisiana, places like Florida, New Jersey. They've also sent big drops in premiums to other states. So now some of the people that were in our coalition to fix NF IP don't want to make the change because their community has lower premiums while we have higher premiums. So F MA has pitted communities against each other instead of trying to work on something that actually can be explained and make sense. We're going to continue this fight because it's not just Louisiana that's being punished. Look, people, thousands of people in Louisiana have dropped their policies. You know, there's clearly a homeowners issue that the state has addressed and started to work on. And I think they're going to bring more private insurance companies into Louisiana based on the work the legislature and Commissioner Temple have done. But FA has caused major because now you've got people that can't afford to pay their flood insurance bill. And so is their choice to just walk away from their home or drop their flood insurance. Neither are good choices. So we have got to change risk rating two point of ma could change it on their own today, they could explain it to the public or the press, they refuse to do so that lack of transparency is devastating communities. It's unacceptable. We're going to continue to battle majority leader a related question given the greater frequency and severity of these natural disasters on NF IP on additional resources which at confidence level that fa would think about adjusting uh 2.0 and the availability of other resources there's also drain. So let's be real clear about this fema's assessments. When you get a bill from FEMA for your flood insurance plan, it's not supposed to be based on how much it rains, how many hurricanes it's supposed to be based on how many times you file a claim. And if you are now in a more resilient community, you're behind billions of dollars of new flood protection. They're by law supposed to take that into consideration and lower the premium, not raise it three or four times. So FEMA has really, I think failed in interpreting and understanding the law and the whole idea of risk rating, you know, private insurance companies do this and private insurance companies have sophisticated models. FEMA won't show us their model and they're a public entity. It's unacceptable. I'm not confident in FEMA right now running the NF IP program. F MA works with us on a lot of other things. So I'm not going to disparage them completely on the NF IP program has been a complete disaster that has wrecked communities in places like South Louisiana. And we're far from the only community. Let me, let me, let me say this. I'll get just, just to follow up on that look in the meetings that we had with administrator Dean Cresswell yesterday. I can tell you that her heart is in the right place and she started to understand that if she, as the female administrator recognizes the billions of dollars that the federal government and the state and locals are spending to protect themselves, we should get a credit for it. So I can tell you, I thought we had a great um um a great meeting yesterday, Senator Kennedy was sitting right there with us. He explained it to her very, very eloquently. I, I think that again, continuing that communication and pushing forward because we are going to send them a report. We're gonna say, let me tell you how many homes would have flooded. Have we not put the bayou Shane um barge in place? Had we not uh been able to lock the systems down in Terre nao, these are the number of houses that would have flooded you and we're going to demand a credit for that. Well, we'll see what they say this morning and saying we're going to lean into the sewage and water board to try to understand what went wrong and to actually fix it. Uh What did you mean by that? And, and number two, are you prepared today to promise the sewage and water board the $29 million that did not make it into the capital outlay plan that you had announced previously months ago that you were going to find the money somewhere. Well, look, here's what I'll tell you and I'll go back and find out exactly what I, that, that pot of money is. But the one thing I wanna make sure we understand something. It's not so much, it's easy to say, oh, we need $29 million because this, this area has received billions of dollars. And the question is why are we in the same position? Right? What we wanna do is work with these leaders to understand exactly what the needs are today. What the need is tomorrow, what the need is next week, what the need is next year. All right, we spoke the mayor. Um and I, and the Susan waterboard talked about uh the need for this um the uh Power Generation station. Uh We are going to sit down and put those numbers together. I think that that is actually important again. And I don't remember if I said it here or there. I, I've had so many of these conferences. Look, we plugged the city, the sewage and water board into our go set meeting. OK, two nights before the storm, we plugged them back in right after so that we understood exactly what they needed when they needed it on the suicide when the city asked for the, the, the fleet of vacuum trucks that they needed in order to keep sewer flowing in the city, they received them. Uh And so again, we plan to work very closely with them to make sure that the money that we're going to spend is, is going to go where it needs it the most I believe was to finish that electrical substation on the property. We are going to have a discussion about that. We, we talked about that earlier. I think that both the city and their consultants, we're gonna get back to the table with gos E and with the department of that, your resources and determine exactly what that calculation is. I can tell you that we're also um in, in conjunction with the core and fema looking at ways to make sure that, that we don't have a power problem if we have another storm or another big rain event between now and then. And we will be happy to report to you all when we find out what those calculations are and how we can get that money today with the communication that came out of the Yeah, look, I, I think that the more we talk, the better it gets right and the more we, and, and what I have asked of them and what they know they'll get of me. In fact, that's one thing, both the mayor and I had a conversation before the storm is y'all know me, y'all get blunt honesty out of me, right? And that's what we want out of them. We wanna and, and, and let me just say this not just about today, but we also one of the things that we talked about uh with the F MA administrator was trying to build a dynamic model of the metro, the New Orleans Metropolitan area because it's a special place with special problems so that we understand exactly where the pumps are, where the power generation is needed. And so that we understand that we can plug in rainfall amounts into that particular model and, and and more accurately predict what those disasters are gonna look like and what resources are gonna be needed. We talked to major general peoples uh with the Corps is here in Louisiana today surveying the coast, we spoke to her about it. We actually, when we had that, that, that discussion with the sewage water board, we plugged the Corps of Engineers on into that same zoom call the core right here in New Orleans has modeling uh projections. It's a matter of us starting to talk to each other. And so if we can start tying that in with what CIA has storm surge modeling, if we can build a dynamic model out, it'll be easier for us to understand not only in the city of New Orleans, but in the parish of Canada and the other metropolitan areas, what the flood fight looks like almost in real time. And I'll just say this, we, I think one of the greatest assets that we invested in this year was putting a climatologist at the desk with us. I mean, having Jay Grimes, there was so valuable because he had an opportunity to look at and we had an opportunity to ask him exactly what he thought was going to happen and what the effects of that is. So I think that just adding that dynamic in its in and of itself was great. Look, I really appreciate uh everyone coming again. I want to thank all of the local officials uh that that came here today and we are committed to making sure that those citizens out there that are in need of resources that we work with their local officials to get them what they want. Thank you.