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Livingston Parish gets $5.3M grant to raise homes damaged in 2016 flood
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DENHAM SPRINGS - Congressman Garret Graves announced Wednesday that a $5.3 million grant will pay to elevate 88 homes that were damaged during the 2016 flood.
"FEMA just approved our acquisition and elevation project of roughly $5 million. And you think that's a whole bunch of money, but folks that lifts 88 homes and there's many more in this parish that flooded. That takes care of about 88 homes," Livingston Parish President Layton Ricks said.
Mark Harrell with the Livingston OEP says he's surprised so few people have applied for the grant.
"We pushed out the information multiple times," Harrell said, but he only received a few calls over the last few months about people wanting to apply.
However, both Harrell and the parish president say they're confident more support will be coming through the elevation program.
Late Wednesday afternoon Gov. Edwards announced $14.2 million in federal funding has become available for several statewide projects in FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP)—including two in Livingston Parish. Details on those projects can be found below.
1-Fire District 5 Safe Rooms, Livingston Parish ($981,718.50)
Constructs two, 1500 square foot, dual-use safe rooms to provide protection for nearly 50 critical services personnel. The facilities will serve as the fire station’s living quarters and serve as a hurricane safe room. Property locations are District 5 Fire Station #1 located at 31747 Myers Road in Denham Springs and District 5 Fire Station #2 located at 25500 LA Highway 16 in Denham Springs.
2-Home Elevation Project, Livingston Parish ($5,356,533.75)
This project provides for the elevation of up to 51 residential structures located throughout the parish to finished floor elevations (FFEs) that are one foot above the base flood elevation (BFE) associated with each property.
To read the full press release outlining the other projects included in the HMGP, click here.
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