The Times-Picayune had an article today detailing the status of the flood recovery. As you can guess, it’s not going well.

Here’s a bit from the article:

Gov. John Bel Edwards is expected to go over his proposal for spending the $1.6 billion in federal funding for flood recovery in detail Friday (Jan. 6).

The Edwards administration has already submitted its plan for spending the first $438 million to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for approval Friday. A plan for spending the next $1.2 billion is still being reviewed by the governor’s flood recovery task force. And the governor won’t be able to submit that second plan until the federal government releases more information about the regulations that apply to that money anyway, according to the Edwards administration.

Notice quite a few times, they try to cover for John Fail Edwards and his administration’s shortcomings. Here’s an example:

The Edwards administration is submitting its plan for spending an initial pot of money — $438 million Congress allocated to Louisiana in September — on Friday. But the governor cannot submit a plan to spend the other $1.2 billion — which was allocated in December — until the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development releases guidelines indicating how the money can be used.

Since the plan for spending the bulk of the money can’t be submitted yet, it also means there will be a delay in getting it approved by the federal government and giving the money out to homeowners. Forbes said he doesn’t expect approval of Edwards’ proposal from Washington D.C. until March or April, which means the money can’t go out to households for rebuilding until April or May at the earliest.

There is a constant push of this theme that John Fail Edwards is being limited by Federal regulations. But you know what leaders do, they leverage relationships and learn to get them out of the way. That’s what Haley Barbour did in Mississippi in Katrina recovery. He dictated the Federal government’s response. Instead, John Fail Edwards is allowing himself to be dictated to by the Feds.

The Edwards administration is also whining that it won’t be able to give money to those who had flood insurance. That’s not a bad thing because that is what the flood insurance program is for. It is designed to compensate losses due to flooding.

In fact what should happen is that those who lived in flood zones but didn’t buy flood insurance shouldn’t get a penny in flood recovery money. Personal responsibility has to kick in at some point.

But John Fail Edwards is going to use $105 million of the money to pay for the local and state response to the flooding that FEMA didn’t pay for.

The governor’s team will be using about $105 million of the federal funding allocated to pay the state and local government’s bills for the emergency response to the floods.

In the August flooding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed to pay 90 percent of the emergency services bills — such as the money needed to activate the National Guard to help rescue people and to pay for shelter services. The state and local governments — such as East Baton Rouge and Livingston parishes — were expected to cover the 10 percent of those costs incurred.

If you can’t get back into your home in a timely manner, blame JBE. He prioritizes the courthouse mob over flood victims.

John Fail Edwards has a long list of excuses to justify his failures in flood recovery. His sycophants in the Louisiana media are more than happy to be his personal stenographers.