But the still-unfolding disaster that is being dubbed the Great Flood of 2016 came as a particular shock, arriving as it did without a name (unlike a hurricane or a tropical storm) and without the powerful winds that usually herald a dramatic storm.
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Those residents without flood insurance are eligible for up to $33,000 in FEMA individual disaster assistance funds, although most will likely receive less than that, based on payments following other major disasters.
Images of president George W. Bush looking out the window of Air Force One as he flew over New Orleans became emblematic of perceived government detachment from the crisis.
“Your government should be there in a natural disaster, and it wasn’t”, Trump said.
In the immediate aftermath of the flooding, Ginger Maulden, president-elect of the Baton Rouge realtor’s group, tells The Advocate (http://bit.ly/2bzML73) she expects the inventory will drop even further. During a campaign event in MI later in the day, Trump suggested the president was more preoccupied with his own fun than with Louisiana’s pain. In the end, however, a couple of truths prevailed.
He tried to downplay the optics that Eric Trump brought up saying that ‘they matter in as much as there are plenty of critics of the Obama administration that seize on those optics because they can’t, frankly, criticize the response’. When she applied for FEMA aid, she said they recommended she look into loans to cover her losses.
“If you’re elected representative of the people and you get down on the ground in the middle of a disaster, I think you are demonstrating to your constituency that presence is a mission”, he said. A lot of them will be of modest means.
As efforts in Louisiana turn from rescue to recovery, renters and homeowners who do not have flood insurance are facing an uncertain financial future.
Obama declared a major disaster for Louisiana on August 14, making federal resources available to help with home repairs, temporary housing, low-priced recovery loans for uninsured property losses and other programs to assist individuals and business owners recover. Numerous areas affected were not considered high-risk. Louisiana’s flood costs could exceed $1.5 billion, a significant price tag in the context of the state’s already wobbly finances. In Louisiana, the extensive damage to homes and businesses, as well as widespread disruption of power, transportation, and communication infrastructure may affect the ability of policyholders to meet the standard 30-day deadline to renew policies. About 19,000 homes had water in them – about 40 percent of the parish’s total housing stock. “People will move out of the areas that were just flooded”.
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America’s policymakers are going to have to figure out a way to reverse trends like that, whether it is by increasing subsidies or by some other means.
