Louisiana gets a lot of federal disaster aid — and can count on needing a lot more of it.
On that forecast, policymakers at this week’s Katrina Forward symposium broadly agreed, even as they debated what went right and what went wrong after hurricanes Katrina and Rita leveled Louisiana 20 years ago.
Hosted by the Kathleen Blanco Public Policy center at UL Lafayette, the day-long conference examined the sea change in policy that followed the storms and weighed the role of state and federal government in preparing for the next big disaster. Featured panelists included former U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, former Louisiana Commissioner of Administration Paul Rainwater and former Louisiana Senate President Page Cortez, alongside legislators and officials…