Obama, who returned on Sunday from his annual August vacation on the MA island, is expected to tour areas in the state capital, Baton Rouge, hit by record flooding and to meet with Louisiana officials to discuss recovery efforts.
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The Knights have also sent $30,000 directly to their State Council in Louisiana to coordinate the organization’s relief work there, the release said.
The manufactured housing units will be available for people who don’t live in a designated flood plain to set up in their yards as they fix houses.
“I come here first and foremost to say that the prayers of the entire nation are with everybody who lost loved ones”. “Hop into the plane and go down and go to Louisiana and see what’s going on, because it’s a mess”.
In what has been called the worst US natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy, waters are finally receding in southern Louisiana from the recent devastating historic floods.
Louisiana officials aimed for bipartisan support and unity as they turned to the task of rounding up federal money for their state.
One hundred percent of all donations collected by Knights of Columbus Charities Inc. will be used for disaster relief.
Samaritan’s Purse, which is also on site, reported that more than 100 volunteers – nearly half of them first-timers – have already put in many hours clearing debris and salvaging valuables from homes throughout the Baton Rouge area, which officials have described as “Katrina-like”, referring to 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who was in Louisiana on Friday, said on Twitter: “President Obama should have gone to Louisiana days ago, instead of golfing”.
“I know how resilient the people of Louisiana are, and I know that you will rebuild again”, Obama said.
“This is not a one-off, this is not a photo-op issue”.
“Too little too late”, Mona Gaspard said of Obama’s visit. “This is, how do you make sure a month from now, three months from now, six months from now, people still are getting the help that they need”, Mr Obama said. The White House has said that the President has been actively engaged on the flooding with an immediate natural disaster declaration and the President visited Louisiana on Tuesday this week.
Bel Edwards, who took office this year, said he suggested to Obama and presidential adviser Valerie Jarrett that they delay a trip to Louisiana until the initial disaster response was over and recovery efforts had started.
“If we can put a family in some sort of a housing facility in their yard, at least it would give the children some sense of normalcy”, he said.
I like the myth-busting statement one insurance broker delivered in a Baton Rouge Advocate story that also appeared in The Courier and Daily Comet last week. FEMA is paying for about 700 families to be housed in hotels and motels.
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Obama was criticized for not visiting Baton Rouge after those two incidents, although he went to Dallas to eulogize five police officers killed in another attack targeting law enforcement.
