Governor Landry took an aerial tour of the flooding in Avoyelles Parish Friday afternoon, and what he saw from the air took his breath away.
“Just the sheer amount of water; and the fact that that water is moving a lot slower than I’d like it to move; and seeing the homes that have several feet of water, was certainly impactful,” Landry said.
Avoyelles is one of six parishes included in Landry’s disaster declaration following torrential rains both during and after Tropical Storm Arthur. Landry is also working to secure a federal disaster declaration for Avoyelles Parish, which would free up federal dollars for recovery efforts. Landry said those affected can help speed up the process by documenting their damage at damage.la.gov.
“The faster you can fill that information out, the quicker we can aggregate that data and make sure that it meets that federal threshold and then move it up the chain,” Landry explained.
Landry also expressed frustration over the relatively low number of people in Avoyelles Parish who carry flood insurance.
“Since 2007, the people of Avoyelles Parish, and many around Louisiana, have dropped their flood insurance because the premiums have risen to a point where they can’t afford it,” Landry noted.
Earlier, Joey Frank, the director of the Avoyelles Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, noted that most of Avoyelles Parish is not in a flood zone. He called this event a “1,000-year flood.”