BATON ROUGE, La. — A day after visiting some of the hardest hit areas of the state damaged by severe storms and tornadoes on April 10, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry signed an emergency declaration on Tuesday.
Landry's declaration permits the use of state resources to assist with the recovery process in each of the affected parishes.
On Monday, Landry toured tornado-ravaged Slidell and told the media a declaration was forthcoming.
“We’ve been taking our time," he explained. "The way we’re going to do these declarations is in an effort to make sure that we concentrate the resources in the area that needs it the most.”
An emergency declaration would allow the city and parish to draw down state assets with 75 percent state and 25 percent local cost sharing.
“We want to make sure we can clean this debris out,” Landry said. “Get all this vegetation out of the roadways and out of people’s yards.”
Provisions under the declaration include:
- The state will provide debris removal assistance in the following parishes: Pointe Coupee, West Feliciana, St. Landry, and St. Tammany (within the jurisdiction of Slidell).
- The state will provide shelter assistance in the following parish: St. Tammany (within the jurisdiction of Slidell).
- The state will provide emergency protective measures in the following parishes: Pointe Coupee, West Feliciana, St. Landry, and St. Tammany (within the jurisdiction of the city of Slidell).
Aside from visiting Slidell and other parts of St. Tammany Parish, Landry also toured tornado damage in the St. Francisville area north of Baton Rouge.
Tornado damage in Slidell
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