Louisiana missed the brunt of Hurricane Harvey when it made landfall again Wednesday as a tropical storm, and is moving several assets over to east Texas to help with relief efforts there, Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser said Thursday.
"We are still concerned as these rivers flow south, with the winds past Louisiana now, that certain areas with the heavy rains could still see flooding," Nungesser told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program. "But I think we're out of the woods for the worst of it."
Nungesser said he feels for the people suffering in Houston, as he himself rode out Hurricane Katrina just 12 miles from where its eye made landfall, and as he worked in rescue efforts in Louisiana.
"To see these people wading through water, it just hits home," he told MSNBC. "We want to do everything we can to assist them. And the governor has sent state police and our Coast Guard because we can get there quicker, so we're assisting in putting a lot of assets into Texas to help out our neighbors in Texas."
Nungesser said he also wants to remind people in his neighboring states that they will not be left alone to fend for themselves when it comes time to rebuild and recover after Harvey.
"There's going to be a lot of faith-based groups and people reaching out to help," said Nungesser. "If I could say one thing to the president and FEMA, let these people have a voucher and buy a travel trailer and park it in their driveway so they can get to work gutting their homes."
The FEMA trailer process takes too long to get underway, said Nungesser, and costs $100,000 per household.
"They'll never get those people back in their driveway in a timely manner," said the lieutenant governor. "We have to do it differently . . . we've got to move quickly through this process, because as time wears on, people lose hope. We've got to keep an eye on this and move quickly to not drag this thing out for many years. It's going to be years, but we need to give it our utmost attention."
Meanwhile, scientists are suggesting that storms the magnitude of Harvey could happen more frequently, and Nungesser Thursday called on officials in his state to get serious about coastal restoration, and to "build a speed bump" around the barrier islands.
"Otherwise we're a sitting duck, and you're right, it will get worse," said Nungesser. "We need to get serious and get this BP money we received out there protecting the coast of Louisiana."
The state is set to receive at least $8.7 billion from BP over the next 15 years, reports The Advocate in Baton Rouge, through a settlement from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The money has been earmarked for coastal restoration efforts hoped to protect industries such as fisheries, ports and energy.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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