"Republican leadership for some time. Part of the Republican agenda seems to be downplaying the notion of climate change"
Republicans believe in climate change. They just think paper straws are not going to fix the problem. Republicans think there is nothing they can do to stop China from producing massive amounts of carbon emissions. Republicans don't control Louisiana - so your entire narrative is wrong.
Louisiana has been Democrat for a very long time, only interrupted for a short while by Bobby Jindal. So there's that.
Also, Louisiana is not the Netherlands, the conditions may not be so good, meaning that 'the plan' may be mass evacuation, which is politically a much more challenging thing than saying 'we need to repair the dykes and our nation will be ok'.
