BATON ROUGE – Governor John Bel Edwards announced Friday that FEMA has approved the Community Disaster Loan for Louisiana.

Edwards said the program will provide aid to local governments impacted by last month’s historic flooding.

The CDL is one of many programs through which FEMA provides direct loans to local governments who suffered substantial loss of tax and other revenue in a disaster. Any funds loaned to local governments through the CDL must be used on existing government functions or expansions to meet disaster needs.

A release from the Governor’s office says the term of the loans are five years, but can be extended to 10 years.

Loan amounts may not exceed the lesser of:

25% of the operating budget of the local government for the fiscal year in which the disaster occurred; or a cumulative estimated revenue loss for the fiscal year of the disaster and the subsequent three fiscal years.

If the estimated revenue loss for the fiscal year of the disaster is at least 75% of the local government’s operating budget for that fiscal year, the loan may be 50% of the local government’s operating budget for the fiscal year of the disaster, but shall not exceed $5 million.