Governor seeks federal aid for winter storm damage

Gov. John Bel Edwards is asking President Joe Biden to declare a major disaster for Louisiana due to the recent severe winter weather.
The storm damage included outages at nearly 100 water systems, impacting roughly one-quarter of the Louisiana population. Also, more than 200,000 people suffered power outages.
The state is requesting Public Assistance, Category B (all Emergency Protective Measures) for all parishes The state is also requesting all categories of assistance available through the Individual Assistance Program for the following northern parishes:
Avoyelles, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Calcasieu, Caldwell, Catahoula, Claiborne, Concordia, DeSoto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll and Winn.
Finally, the state is requesting Hazard Mitigation Assistance statewide.
Those impacted are encouraged to complete the damage assessment survey at www.damage.la.gov. This data will be used to support future requests for additional parishes.