BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy spent Tuesday on a chopper assessing Hurricane Ida’s damage.

“This storm was worse than Katrina,” Kennedy said. “Not that New Orleans did not have damage, it did. But, everybody else got it.”

Senator Kennedy says Louisiana is strongly depending on federal help to recover from Hurricane Ida.

“Some of the smaller communities down there is still underwater, virtually no dwellings or places of business are untouched, Fourchon is just devastated,” he said.

Kennedy’s biggest concern is getting Louisiana residents housing aid. Those affected by Hurricane Laura in 20202 have yet to receive help. 

“My heart breaks for Lake Charles,” Kennedy said. “I personally been to the floor of the United States Senate twice to try to pass a bill getting aid to southwest Louisiana and twice the democrats voted against me.”

He says the state has done a great job since Hurricane Katrina, however, things are not perfect.

“I wouldn’t hire those people of the sewage and water board to manage my lunch order. We put a lot of federal and state and local taxpayer money into that operation they need to get their business straight,” Kennedy said.

He is urging Hurricane Ida victims to apply for federal assistance as soon as possible because this will be a long road to recovery.

More information on FEMA assistance is available here.