ASCENSION PARISH - After a closed-door discussion at the Ascension Parish Council on Thursday, councilmembers gave Parish President Clint Cointment the go-ahead to join a fight against the state for an audit of how $1.2 billion dollars of flood relief money was spent. 

Cointment says Ascension Parish hasn't seen the aid that was promised after the historic flooding of 2016.

"Billions of dollars in damage, tens of thousands of homes, what projects have we done to mitigate a future 2016?" Cointment asked.

The Louisiana Watershed Initiative set aside $1.2 billion to build canals and fix projects across the areas that flooded, including in Ascension Parish.

Cointment wants to know where the federal money went that was supposed to go to preventing another flood.

"The people of 2016 expected that. That's what they were told, and here we are in 2023, and we don't have to point to any project," he said.

With several major flooding events hitting the area in the years since the 2016 disaster, many Ascension Parish residents have said they're constantly living in fear of the next great flood.

"Everyone is anxious. You're starting to see depression set in. Folks are having traumatic stress that's brought about from 2016. They've all gone through this in 2016," resident Blaine Petit told WBRZ in 2021.

"Flood waters don't care if you're rich or poor. They flood everybody. They don't care," Cointment said.

He says part of the problem is poor communication and now he wants to see legal action.

"We're going to run out of money soon in LWI. $1.2 billion will be spent and the question is when you look back, what did we do with it?" Cointment said.