Gov. John Bel Edwards has awarded more than $41 million to six coastal parishes for flood-resilience improvement projects developed through Louisiana's Strategic Adaptions for Future Environments (LA SAFE). LA SAFE is an innovative effort championed by Gov. Edwards to create and implement adaptations to ongoing coastal land loss and rising seas.

“Along with our Coastal Master Plan and the new Louisiana Watershed Initiative, these award-winning LA SAFE projects represent the cutting-edge in our efforts to proactively plan for the reality of our state's increasing vulnerability to weather events and coastal erosion,” Gov. Edwards said. “In an era of escalating risks, now is the time to help our communities develop future sustainability and resilience.”

The 10 projects, which will receive a total of $41,016,000 in Community Development Block Grant-Disaster Recovery funding, are as follows:

• Jefferson Parish: $5,605,000 for Gretna Resilience District Kickstart;
• Jefferson Parish: $475,000 for Louisiana Wetlands Education Center;
• Lafourche Parish: $7,000,000 for Resilient Housing Prototype;
• Lafourche Parish: $3,500,000 for Emerging Industry Business Incubator;
• Plaquemines Parish: $4,765,000 for Plaquemines Harbor of Refuge;
• Plaquemines Parish: $1,865,000 for Plaquemines Mental Health and Substance Abuse;
• St. John the Baptist Parish: $6,046,000 for Airline & Main Complete Streets;
• St. Tammany Parish: $5,310,000 for Safe Haven Blue-Green Campus & Trails;
• Terrebonne Parish: $3,600,000 for Lake Boudreaux Living Mitigation; and
• Terrebonne Parish: $2,850,000 for the Voluntary Relocation of Permanent Residents outside of Morganza.

Funded through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's National Disaster Resilience Competition and spearheaded by the state's Office of Community Development in partnership with the Foundation for Louisiana, the LA SAFE process included grassroots, community-based planning that involved 71 individual public outreach and engagement events over a nine-month period during the past year. Nearly 3,000 residents from six coastal parishes participated.

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