Inouye adds $33.5M in flood aid to funding bill

KILAUEA, Kauai » Just 11 days after touring the Garden Isle's flooded areas, Sen. Daniel Inouye announced yesterday that he had secured $33.5 million in federal disaster aid for Kauai and Windward Oahu.

The funding, attached to the fiscal year 2006 Emergency Supplemental Appropriation Bill designed to pay for the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina, still has to be approved by the full Senate and House. But it was approved 27-1 by the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which Inouye is the top Democrat.

Inouye "will try to move this as quickly as possible," said his spokesman, Mike Yuen, so the funding can get to those who need it soon.

The funding includes:

» $20 million to the state for reimbursement of road repairs, including Kuhio Highway on Kauai and others on Oahu.

» $6 million in transportation funds to help sugar cane growers cope with their losses, and another $1 million for crop disaster assistance directly to farmers.

» $3 million for the repair and rebuilding of irrigation system infrastructure and removal of debris caused by the failure of Ka Loko Dam.

» $3 million to the Army Corps of Engineers for water systems technical assistance and flood plain management.

» $500,000 for the U.S. Geological Survey for Kauai dam assessment.

"I am glad that committee members realized that immediate action needed to be taken ... and that people of Kauai could not wait for assistance until the next fiscal year," Inouye said in a statement.

The statement added that Inouye had toured the Kauai damage just two hours after wife Margaret's funeral.

"I know Maggie would have wanted me to do this -- to see firsthand the damage on Kauai and to do my best to assist the people of Kauai in their time of need," Inouye added. He said he would survey the flood-damaged areas of Windward Oahu when he returns from Washington, D.C., next week.