Congressman Garret Graves told WWL the hard earned lessons of Hurricane Ida will not be forgotten and federal and state reforms will be pursued to ensure we can bounce back faster from the next major hurricane.
Graves said this devastating storm should help spur a number of reforms, from expanding the flood insurance program, to making sure insurers and FEMA don’t withhold funds for those who evacuated.
“It should not be whether there was a mandatory evacuation or not, it should be based on the impacts. We had numerous parishes that experienced impacts from this storm,” said Graves who added that this should not be a reform that kicks in for the next one. “We’re trying to push FEMA to exercise a little discretion about those that are in non-mandatory evacuating parishes just to do what is right and help these folks.”
Allstate and USAA are the only major home insurers in the state to agree to cover those costs. Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon met with State Farm Monday morning to discuss the issue.
Graves said other short term focuses include maintaining the supply of fuel into storm impacted regions and picking up the pace of power restoration, but there are some early long-term reforms coming into view. Among those are discussions about guaranteeing the long-term future of the National Flood Insurance Program by allowing it to cover damage from other natural disasters. Graves said doing so would expand the base of participants and help disburse costs.
Graves vowed that the lessons about fuel shortages, power grid resilience, and protection for those outside of the federal levee system will not be forgotten. Graves said we will rebuild better than before.
“We are going to do it in a way that is more resilient, learning from the mistakes of the past, restoring the coast, building the right levees, and ensuring that next time we will not have this type of devastation,” said Graves.