BATON ROUGE - The federal government has approved more than a billion dollars of funding that will go toward flood mitigation projects in Louisiana. 

The governor's office announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has approved the state’s Action Plan for spending $1.2 billion in Community Development Block Grant Mitigation funds. The plan includes an initial $100 million funding opportunity for projects that will address immediate flood mitigation needs throughout the state. 

The state previously identified 46 parishes as most impacted and distressed, or MID, areas, which HUD approved in addition to the original 10 parishes HUD identified as most impacted and distressed. Among those parishes are East Baton Rouge, Livingston, Ascension, Tangipahoa, and St. Tammany.

The state expects the funding to become available in spring 2020, after which LWI will make significant investments in low-risk, high-impact projects to reduce flood risk throughout the state.

You can find the full action plan here: https://watershed.la.gov/assets/docs/2019-12-23-CDBG-MIT-AP-FINAL.PDF