Students, faculty and staff also will have time to resolve any issues before classes begin.
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More than 60,000 people had signed up for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and 16 parishes were added to the federal disaster declaration, bringing the total to 20. She says Obama directed Fugate to use all available resources to assist in the response and recovery, and to regularly update him. Obama received the briefing while in Martha’s Vineyard, a MA island. At the height, 11,000 people were staying in shelters, though that had dropped to 6,000 by Wednesday.
For those who did return, the impact could be devastating.
More than 40,000 homes have at least some kind of damage from the flooding, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Tuesday. Eleven deaths have been attributed to the storm.
The Louisiana State Police has allowed people to reclaim cars left behind on a portion of an interstate in some of the worst-hit flooding areas of south Louisiana.
Louisiana’s economic development office is encouraging business owners to register for federal disaster aid and to look at other available support services at www.OpportunityLouisiana.com. The SBA provides loans of up to $2 million to fix and replace damaged equipment, inventory and property.
“We’re going to have thousands of people coming in”, Pannett said. “From rock bottom”, she said. Numerous photos were of her 15-year-old daughter, Olivia. Henry said his trailer home was raised off the ground and not damaged, but he wasn’t sure if it would remain that way. Because they weren’t in high-risk areas, they weren’t required to carry flood insurance by mortgage lenders, leaving them to rely on their own savings and federal disaster relief as they struggle to fix the damage.
Joseph Bruno, a New Orleans lawyer who is a veteran of the Katrina insurance wars, fears the greatest needs could be borne by elderly residents who paid off their homes and weren’t required by their bank to carry flood insurance.
Chris Bankston was with workers mucking out his family-owned auto parts store Wednesday.
“My father’s owned this place for 70 years”. Floodwaters had never come within 200 yards of the place before, he said. By Sunday, the gasoline pumps out front were covered with water.
In nearby Livingston Parish, 76 percent of all homes were already “lost to floods”, Lori Steele, a spokeswoman for the parish, told NBC News. About 138,000 people live in the parish.
“The storm deposited 10 inches of rain or more on eight states with up to 23 inches in MS and 31 inches in Louisiana”, AccuWeather Meteorologist Jesse Ferrell said.
“The Red Cross is mounting a massive relief operation, which we anticipate will cost at least $30 million, and that number may grow as we learn more about the scope and magnitude of the devastation”, Kieserman said.
Kieserman says the flooding in Louisiana is the worst natural disaster to strike the United States since Superstorm Sandy.
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The heartbreaking task of sorting through waterlogged belongings and ripping out carpets and drywall is kicking into high gear in flood-wracked southern Louisiana.
