To My Friends:

• The state estimates we have spent $210 million so far preparing and responding to Hurricane Gustav.  Gov. Jindal expects the federal government to reimburse the state for most of those expenditures.

• The Public Service Commission says 10% or 190,000 of the state’s utility customers are still without power (as of Wednesday).  The state plans a meeting with utility companies after the Gustav recovery is complete to discuss options for avoiding the mass outages experienced during Gustav and improving the restoration of service that is damaged. 

• Governor Jindal, at the urging of Agriculture Commissioner Mike Strain, has requested a federal emergency declaration for the state’s agriculture industry.  The first estimates of Hurricane Gustav’s damage to Louisiana totals $372 million.  Almost half of the cotton crop was damaged and all other crops suffered losses.

• Louisiana Economic Development officials say Hurricane Gustav caused an estimated $7 billion - $15 billion in damages to homes and other structures across the state, and $2.5 billion - $5 billion in economic losses.

• A good place to avoid!  East Baton Rouge Parish continues to struggle with power outages and resulting traffic nightmares with some of the traffic signals not working.

• A researcher working with Entergy says 51.4% of Louisiana experienced hurricane-force winds during Hurricane Gustav, as compared to 39% of the residents during Hurricane Katrina.

• Hurricane Gustav’s death toll in Louisiana has risen to 26.

• The state continues to experience problems at the Disaster Food Stamp Application Offices across the state.  Long lines, misinformation and traffic snarls around the sites are continuing.

• Mississippi officials, holding hearings on contraflow issues during Hurricane Gustav, say the state of Louisiana agreed months ago to prevent motorists from traveling east on I-10 past Slidell into Mississippi during a contraflow order.  Thousands of motorists leaving Louisiana were stuck in traffic heading north on I-59 for hours during the Hurricane Gustav contraflow.

• The Insurance Information Institute now says estimated total insured losses from Hurricane Gustav may be close to the $10 billion mark.  Just a week ago, the Institute was predicting the losses would be much lower.

Jack Donahue

Senator District 11