Sixty Days Later: Signs of Recovery as Work Continues

BATON ROUGE, La. – Sixty days have passed since torrential rains caused historic flooding in Louisiana. The August storms dumped an estimated seven trillion gallons of rainwater across southern Louisiana—more than four times the amount of water contained in Lake Pontchartrain.

Even before the flood waters subsided, members of federal, state, and voluntary agencies quickly responded to provide disaster assistance. Signs of recovery are visible as disaster assistance funds and other forms of relief continue to reach survivors.

Assistance to Individuals

To date, more than 150,000 individuals and families have registered for FEMA disaster assistance. Survivors can register with FEMA by going online to DisasterAssistance.gov, calling the FEMA helpline at 800-621-3362, or downloading the FEMA mobile app.

• Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA) specialists continue to visit affected neighborhoods to help survivors register for assistance.
• These specialists have met face-to-face with more than 117,000 individuals and registered more than 4,000 applicants.

• Survivors have also had the option to visit Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) for registration and other assistance from representatives of FEMA, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and other organizations. More than 58,000 survivors have been assisted by DRC staffers.
• Survivors can locate a DRC near them by going online to fema.gov/disaster-recovery-centers, calling the FEMA helpline, or downloading the FEMA mobile app.

Survivors have been given more than $695 million in disaster assistance through FEMA’s Individuals and Households Program.

• Of that number, more than $558 million in housing assistance has gone to helping survivors find temporary housing solutions and rebuild their homes. This money has contributed to a variety of beneficial programs, including:

• Transitional Sheltering Assistance (TSA), which allows eligible survivors to stay in hotel rooms billed directly to FEMA. Currently, 2,503 applicants are taking advantage of TSA.

• Rental Assistance, which allows eligible survivors to receive funding to pay for temporary rental housing. More than $120 million in rental assistance has been approved.

• Manufactured Housing Units (MHUs), specialized housing units that serve as a last-resort option for survivors who cannot find other viable housing solutions. To date, 448 applicants are licensed in to MHUs. 

• An additional $136 million was given out for Other Needs Assistance, which helps survivors cover the costs of necessary items and services such as transportation, medical and dental expenses, clothing and funeral costs.

Public Assistance

More than $187 million in disaster assistance has been awarded by FEMA’s Public Assistance program for flood-related costs such as:

• emergency response operations;

• road reconstruction;

• police vehicles; and

• debris removal

The Public Assistance program is helping the state of Louisiana and local jurisdictions to fund debris removal operations. The flooding generated an estimated 4 million cubic yards of debris; to date, 88 percent of that has been removed.

SBA Assistance

The U.S. Small Business Administration has approved more than 12,500 low-interest disaster loans totaling $916 million. While these loans cannot duplicate benefits from insurance or other federal aid, they are available to businesses, private nonprofits, homeowners and renters.

NFIP Claims

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid out $776 million on more than 29,000 claims. FEMA recommends homeowners and renters invest in flood insurance; residents do not have to live in a floodplain to be eligible for flood insurance and its benefits.

USDA Assistance

To date, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has given out more than $48 million through the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP). Regular Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) households received another $30 million in disaster-related benefits.

AmeriCorps Assistance

Members of AmeriCorps have assessed nearly 400 flood-damaged homes and performed muck-and-gut operations on 339 of those homes, removing nearly 15,000 cubic yards of debris.

Disaster Unemployment Assistance

Nearly 700 applications for Disaster Unemployment Assistance were approved for more than $595,000. This assistance goes directly to survivors who lost their jobs due to the flooding.

Crisis Counseling

More than 1,400 households have taken advantage of disaster-related crisis counseling, meeting with counselors in shelters, DRCs and via community outreach.
Grant funding has also been requested for the Crisis Counseling Regular Services Program, which would allow survivors to receive crisis counseling for the nine months following the disaster declaration.