By BECKY BOHRER
The Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were a roughly $100 billion blow to Louisiana buildings and infrastructure, and federal rebuilding aid and insurance payments fall about $34 billion short of making up for the losses, a state agency says.

The $100 billion estimate, in a Louisiana Recovery Authority report set to be released Friday, includes levees, public buildings and infrastructure, businesses, houses and personal property lost or damaged in the 2005 hurricanes. Of that, insurance has covered $40 billion and federal aid $26 billion, the report says.

The damage estimate was compiled using property loss estimates from various sectors, LRA spokeswoman Melissa Landry said.

Andy Kopplin, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, said he isn’t suggesting that the federal government or insurers write a $34 billion check. But he said people shouldn’t be surprised if Louisiana continues to ask Congress for help rebuilding, something he expects to happen over the next decade.

A recent report from the Government Accountability Office noted the difficulty in assessing damages from the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes, saying the exact costs may never be known but that overall they would likely “far surpass” those of the three other costliest disasters in recent memory - the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks; Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and California’s Northridge earthquake in 1994.

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