Deaths, worries about assistance mount after Hurricane Laura
In a matter of hours last week, Hurricane Laura tore through the tyre shop Layla Winbush’s family started just under a year ago, reducing most of it to rubble and scattering hundreds of tyres across the lot. The storm also damaged her home, which now reeks of mould.
Federal and state officials are on the ground to help residents with home repairs and hotel stays. But Winbush said she feels alone, particularly after seeing a video of President Donald Trump, who visited the area last Saturday, joking with Gulf Coast officials that they could sell copies of his signature for $10,000.
“We can’t depend on the president. We can’t depend on nobody,” she said. “We’ll just take what we have and get it done.”
As evacuated Lake Charles residents return home, many worry they wouldn’t have enough support from both the federal and state governments as they face a rebuilding process certain to take several months, if not longer.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards on Monday warned that residents were in for a long recovery, with 324,000 power outages across the state and 600,000 people either without water or under boil water advisories. Meanwhile, stifling heat and humidity were adding to the trouble of clearing out debris, patching roofs and starting rebuilding work.
“This is going to be a very difficult storm to recover from,” he said.
FEDERAL RESPONSE
But Edwards praised the federal response so far, saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was quick to arrive with assistance and sent hundreds of workers for recovery efforts. On Monday, Edwards announced a temporary roofing programme operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers.
Nineteen deaths in Texas and Louisiana have been attributed to the storm; half were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the unsafe operation of generators. The latest, reported Monday by Louisiana’s health department, was a 49-year-old man in Rapides Parish who died when a tree he was cutting fell on him.
The Category four hurricane made landfall last Thursday just south of Lake Charles near Cameron, Louisiana, packing 150-mph (240-kph) winds and a storm surge as high as 15 feet (4.5 metres) in some areas.
Needs are substantial. More than 67,000 people in Louisiana have registered for assistance from
FEMA so far, according to Edwards’ office.
In hard-hit Calcasieu Parish, some waited hours for tarps, water and other supplies at distribution sites, said parish spokesperson Tom Hoefer. The parish had been without power, and in many areas, including the parish seat of Lake Charles that’s home to more than 78,000 people, water had not been flowing from taps, he said.