The White House defended Obama’s actions by touting the federal response to the disaster, including making $120 million in emergency funds available and the president dispatching a contingent of federal officials to Louisiana, led by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson and Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate.
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According to the American Red Cross, the August floods are responsible for the deaths of 13 people and the damage to more than 60,000 homes. Especially hard hit were southern MS and southcentral Louisiana, where more than 60,000 homes have been damaged, more than 8,400 people are in emergency shelters, and more than 100,000 people have applied for federal assistance.
Ascension Parish President Kenny Matassa has canceled the annual balloon festival planned for Lamar-Dixon Expo Center next month citing the impact historic flooding has had on participants in the event.
Trump visited Baton Rouge on Friday, enjoying a warm reception and allowing him to cast the president as golfing while Louisianans suffered.
The White House said last week Obama is eager to see the impact of the floods, but wanted to make sure his presence did not “interfere with ongoing recovery efforts”. The Republican nominee’s criticism of Obama echoed an editorial last week by The Advocate, Baton Rouge’s local newspaper, that demanded Obama cut short his vacation to visit the region.
BATON ROUGE, La. – President Barack Obama landed here Tuesday to tour flood-ravaged neighborhoods and to try to avoid the political minefields that his visit presents.
“He told me that FEMA would help me to get furniture”, she said. Edwards said afterward that like many other areas that flooded this month, people in Youngsville were in areas that had never flooded and didnt have to buy flood insurance.
Described as the worst disaster since Superstorm Sandy in 2012, a storm that started August 12 dumped as much as 2 feet of rain in some areas over two days, blamed for 13 deaths.
The wall was protecting his house in Baton Rouge, Louisiana from the recent flooding.
He pledged to support the almost half a million flood-affected residents “even after the cameras leave”.
The department says to use a hard brush or cleaning pad to scrub hard surfaces with detergent in hot water and rinse with hot water.
“I pulled in this street this morning and a wave hit me and it just, I broke down, you know (what) I’m saying”, Krichel said outside his house.
Louisiana natives and American Idol hosts Harry Connick Jr. and Randy Jackson will host “Louisiana Rising: A Benefit Concert for Flood Relief ” on Labor Day.
Obama talks on the tarmac after arriving on Air Force One at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Baton Rouge, La., on Tuesday.
Evacuees who didn’t return to their home states were more likely to come from a lower-income household, or be unemployed, than their counterparts who did return home. She says lost everything again in this flood. “It shows his concern for the residents of this small town of Zachary”. “We’re talking about a community being upended”, Earnest said. Some areas received over two feet of rain within just a few days.
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Donations will then be distributed to support the efforts of nonprofits, shelters, and parishes as they respond to the needs in their communities. But Im glad to see everybody is safe, at least..
