The state average is about 11 inches below normal rainfall. There are very few places in the state that have gotten enough rain this year, putting us in a perilous predicament.

We don't know if the cotton has been blown out, but most of the storm probably went to the east of the cotton-growing area from Pointe Coupee (Parish) north through the Delta.

We're working to save lives today.

St. Bernard is totally underwater, ... It is over the rooftops. I didn't see a lot of houses in St. Bernard.

If it's clean, I'll let it go, ... I'll renew (the ban) every damn month if I have to, I will do whatever I have to to protect the consumer.

I don't know what we're going to do about it.

It's hard to remember when losses have been so widespread across almost every crop and in every region of the state.

[Although much of the downed timber is on private land, Odom is hoping to get federal approval to process much of it in sawmills. But the future of the wind-scoured forests] is my big concern, ... It'll take 30 years to replace most of those trees. Losing that resource hurts us bad.

There is a lot of water, a lot of damage.