Beyond Katrina

Governor Jindal Appeals to White House to Reverse Denial of Extension of 100 Percent Federal Cost Share for Ike, Requests Clarification on Cost Share for Hurricane Gustav

BATON ROUGE, La. - Governor Bobby Jindal, in a letter to President George Bush this week, appealed the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) denial of Louisiana's request for an extension of full federal cost share for debris removal from Hurricane Ike and requested equitable treatment to the state of Texas, which has had a 100-day extension of 100 percent federal cost share for Ike.

At Governor Jindal's request, Louisiana had been granted 100 percent federal cost share for Categories A and B of FEMA Public Assistance, which reimburses states for debris removal and emergency work after disasters, for only 44 days. FEMA denied Louisiana's request for an extension of this time frame, while at the same time approving a 100-day extension for the state of Texas.

Because parishes could not immediately begin debris removal after the storm and because the federal government waited so long to authorize a limited 100 percent cost share time period for Hurricane Ike in Louisiana, many parishes were not able to see the full effects of this benefit, Governor Jindal wrote.

In a separate letter, Governor Jindal seeks clarification that the White House's intent in November was to authorize 90 percent federal cost share for all effects of Hurricane Gustav. Hurricane Gustav has two declaration numbers, FEMA - 1786-DR and FEMA-3289-EM, and Governor Jindal believes President Bush intended to authorize 90 percent cost share for emergency work and debris removal under both declaration numbers and wants a formal clarification of this.

In response to Governor Jindal's requests, in November, President Bush authorized dropping Louisiana's share of costs related to the response and recovery of Hurricane Gustav from 25 percent to 10 percent, meaning the federal government would pay for 90 percent of all costs related to Gustav only.

Governor Jindal has repeatedly requested 100 percent federal cost share for all categories of FEMA Public Assistance for both hurricanes Gustav and Ike, because paying local match on all hurricane recovery costs when the state is rebuilding after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in addition to hurricanes Gustav and Ike is an undue burden on the state and its parish governments.

• Click here to read the letter on Hurricane Ike cost share.
• Click here to read the letter on Hurricane Gustav cost share.

Gustav really was the worst, meteorologists say

Aha! I've been waiting for the dust to clear and the information to come forth as to why Cat 1 Gustav was such a formidable hurricane for Baton Rouge, exceeding the intensity and the damage wrought by Betsy and Andrew. Two LSU scientists weigh in here.

On another note, I wish the National Hurricane Center would change the policy of repeating the same hurricane names every few years. It creates  confusion for those of us who document them - and it doesn't seem to be the most  efficient way to do this in my humble opinion.

There are two invests in the Atlantic and  thankfully seems like neither are going to be very ominous at this point, nor are these systems heading for the Gulf of Mexico. Hopefully we gulf coasters are done for a while.

Tenacity Over Tears: The Life of a Bayou Woman

I want to take this opportunity to introduce my readers to a very special friend from Bayou Du Large, one of the the coastal communities in Terrebonne Parish, La that was  impacted  by the storms of 2005 and now severely in  2008.  Her name is Wendy Wilson Billiot, but she is most affectionately known these days as "Bayou Woman". While I have never met Wendy personally - inasmuch as we have a shared passion for Louisiana's coastal concerns -we've enjoyed a wonderful pen pal relationship via email for the past year or so. There are some folks you just feel an affinity to right off the bat. Wendy is one of them.

In addition to keeping up with her through email,   Wendy publishes a very unique and interesting blog about her life in Bayou Du Large which I read frequently. Well before Gustav and Ike made landfall in coastal Louisiana, I told Wendy I wanted to do a tribute to her and her blog here at Beyond Katrina because I've enjoyed it so much.  After Ike's storm surged pushed into Terrebonne Parish flooding her community and her home, I just knew it was time to make good on that promise.

Wendy's blog, "Life in the Louisiana Wetlands ", (which can be viewed at http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/ ) is a veritable plethora of information about life on the bayou  as seen through the eyes of a true blue Bayou Woman. She covers everything you'd ever want to know there (but are too afraid to ask) from fishing, to bayou cooking, wildlife, plant life and  more.

Wendy is also a hard working and  relentless advocate for the preservation and restoration of Louisiana's fragile wetlands.. Her community of Bayou Du Large is in the  Terrebonne Estuary System, which she is quick to remind is "vanishing at the astonishing rate of a football field every half hour". She has a  USCG captain's license which enables her to take people on tours to see the amazing beauty and degradation of our wetlands. She has also penned a wonderful book, Before the Saltwater Came, an environmental book about our local wetlands and the first of its kind. Her book  is being used to educate students about our disappearing wetlands in  classrooms across the  state, the nation, and indeed all over the world. Likewise, her articles have appeared in many well know magazines and newspapers and she won the  Louisiana Outdoor Writer's Association Excellence in Craft first place award  in 2007 for her articles about Louisiana's coastal issues.

Believe it or not  there is still more - and while  I haven't told Wendy this yet -  this is just the  first in a series of posts I'll be doing about "Bayou Woman". She is one of the most creative, interesting and multi-talented folks I've ever encountered and there is just way too much to share about the cornucopia that is her life in just this one post. I also feel it is important to cover Terrebonne's recovery and rebuilding efforts here, just as I have done for the communities impacted by Katrina and Rita. However, I couldn't share the story of Terrebonne's recovery any better than Wendy can.

As I write, Wendy is working hard to clean up after Gustav and Ike, choosing "tenacity over tears" as she deals with the multitude of personal and collective losses inherent to the impact of two back to back hurricanes.   Her latest blog posts with accompanying photographs (yep she's quite a photog too)  provide an insiders view of the many facets of  hurricane recovery in Terrebonne parish. I do hope you will stop by Wendy's blog at http://bayouwoman.wordpress.com/ and peek in on the amazing life of a Bayou Woman!

Margaret Saizan

**Photo courtesy -- Wendy Billiot

Storm report: Forgotten people

"Time and Tide" Isle de Jean Charles --Terrebonne Parish, La. (courtesy Matthew White)

This one's near and dear to the heart. I was very pleased to that Gannett's Dennis Camire penned an article focused on the Houma Indians and their struggle to preserve their way of life, their lands and to rebuild again in light of recent hurricane devastation. As Camire reports,"the problem is that the tribe has not fully recovered from the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The tribe's members, many of whom used to depend primarily on fishing for their livelihood, are seeing their marshlands vanish into the Gulf of Mexico and are being battered with personal losses from storm after storm". The article which is publised at The Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana may be viewed here.

I want to take this time to do a  mention for Houma Indian Captain John Verret  who has generously helped me and and my colleague Matthew White  get up front and personal with coastal land loss and wetlands issues over in Terrebonne -  as have others there. As a result Matthew has quite a few  photographs taken in Isle Jean Charles (which is part of the article's focus), Dulac, Cocodrie and other parts of Terrebonne, here.  Matthew does plan to return soon to continue his documentation of  this fragile  ecological jewel.

   

Levees make noticable difference

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Gov. Jindal visits storm-wrecked Terrebonne Parish

    

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Changing the landscape of Louisiana marshes

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Tugboat hits bridge in Bayou Sorrel, hundreds landlocked

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