Some 450 member homes were inundated and suffered various levels of damage. The need for more help is urgent.
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Louisiana officials aimed for bipartisan support and unity as they turned to the task of rounding up federal money for their state.
It took him 10 days to get there, but President Obama did finally make it to Louisiana to look at the devastation wrought by heavy rain that pounded the Baton Rouge area earlier this month.
“We are certainly ready, willing and able to support that if and when Congress decides to take that up”, he said. “I know HUD has already provided some technical assistance in the drafting of that kind of legislation, but I can not make any commitment on that right now because that is Congress’s call”.
“The historic flooding in and around Baton Rouge and other areas is a combination of several factors including riverine (on-floodplain) flooding, backwater in tributaries due to high flood stages in main rivers, and significant local flash flooding (off-floodplain) caused by intense rainfall, flatter terrain, and limited drainage capacity that was further exacerbated by backwater effects”.
People came from all around southwest Louisiana to help, Monica Chapman told The Associated Press after speaking with the governor.
“I am committed to visiting communities affected by these floods, at a time when the presence of a political campaign will not disrupt the response”, she said, while calling for donations to the Red Cross.
The sandbag wall had to be reinforced with a plywood wall.
People in the Pelican State have been battling flood waters for two weeks now, and that includes first responders, some of whom are now asking for a little help.
Thousands of south Louisiana residents remain stuck in shelters, living in hotels or staying in the spare bedrooms of family and friends after flooding ravaged their homes, creating a housing crunch that will bring back temporary housing units like those that dotted the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. They’ll be on blocks and strapped down, not on wheels. “We’re glad that the families I had a chance to meet are safe, but they’ve got a lot of work to do, and they shouldn’t have to do it alone”, Obama said.
“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. The agency says the temporary housing – used in California after wildfires past year – meets tougher federal standards and is built to house storm victims much longer than the travel trailer used after Katrina. Catastrophic flooding there last week damaged at least 100,000 homes in what some are calling the worst natural disaster in the United States since Hurricane Sandy. While the company was able to avoid flood damage, many of our employees did not – in fact, some have lost everything.
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“A flood that left much of the region underwater means a huge impact on the federal flood insurance program”. Obama declared more than a dozen parishes a disaster area August 14.
