[StBernard] Feds cancel St. Bernard Parish government's Hurricane Gustav disaster loan

[Westley Annis]

Feds cancel St. Bernard Parish government's Hurricane Gustav disaster loan
Print Bob Warren, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune By Bob Warren, NOLA.com |
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on December 27, 2013 at 4:42 PM, updated December 27, 2013 at 5:29 PM

St. Bernard Parish has been notified that the federal government has
cancelled its $5.4 million community disaster loan from Hurricane Gustav in
2008. The cancellation of the loan, and more than $420,000 in interest,
follows a spate of recent cancellations across the New Orleans area of
community disaster loans stemming from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

On Monday, for instance, the St. Tammany Parish public school system
received word that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was forgiving
almost $68 million in disaster loans and accumulated interest stemming from
Katrina in 2005. And in November, FEMA canceled a $54.8 million disaster
loan and $11 million in interest for Jefferson Parish.

The St. Bernard Parish loan cancellation was announced late Friday by Sen.
Mary Landrieu, D-La. Parish President Dave Peralta said Friday the
cancellation of the loan was important to the parish.

The parish doesn't have the money to repay the loan, he said.

"It would have meant a reduction in services and maybe a reduction in
force,'' Peralta said. "So this is exciting news for us.''

The cancellation results from a provision that Landrieu wrote into the 2013
Homeland Security Appropriations bill to change a FEMA formula that had
prevented cancellation of more than $286 million in community disaster loans
across southeast Louisiana.