BATON ROUGE – Today, Governor Bobby Jindal announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has activated the Community Disaster Loan Program to assist communities that suffered a loss of revenue due to Hurricanes Gustav and Ike. The state requested the activation of this program to aid Louisiana communities in September, and Congress has allocated $100 million for this national program, which will be available to assist states suffering from disasters, including Texas, in their recovery from Hurricane Ike, and states in the Midwest, which are recovering from flooding this summer.
Governor Jindal said, “This news today is another positive step forward in assisting Louisianians who are continuing to work to get back on their feet after our two back-to-back hurricanes. This $100 million in federal assistance authorized for the Community Disaster Loan Program will help our Louisiana communities that suffered tremendous losses during these storms, many whose normal tax bases have been severely hurt, in making ends meet while they begin to rebuild.
“Of course, we still have much more work to do. We continue to work with our delegation to communicate our critical needs to Congress and the Administration for agricultural assistance and a 100 percent federal cost share, which Congress granted to our state after Hurricane Katrina. This assistance is critical to aiding our people, our businesses, and our communities, as we continue to recover and rebuild.”
The Community Disaster Loan program provides operational funding to help local governments that have incurred a significant loss in revenue, due to a presidentially declared disaster, that has or will adversely affect their ability to provide essential services.
The program provides communities that experienced revenue losses after Gustav and Ike loans of up to 25 percent of their annual operating costs. The maximum loan is $5 million. The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness will send information to parishes eligible to participate.
