In aftermath of Hurricane Laura, residents worry about getting help

LAKE CHARLES, La. — In a matter of hours last week, Hurricane Laura tore through the tire shop Layla Winbush’s family started just under a year ago, reducing most of it to rubble and scattering hundreds of tires across the lot. The storm also damaged her home, which now reeks of mold.

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 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 Gov. John Bel Edwards on Monday warned that residents were in for a long recovery, with 324,000 power outages across the state and hundreds of thousands of people 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.

But Edwards praised the federal response so far, saying the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been quick to arrive with assistance and sent hundreds of workers to the region for recovery efforts. On Monday, Edwards announced a temporary roofing program operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Eighteen deaths in Texas and Louisiana have been attributed to the storm; more

than half were killed by carbon monoxide poisoning from the unsafe operation of generators.

The Category 4 hurricane made landfall Thursday just south of Lake Charles near Cameron, Louisiana, packing 150- mph winds and a storm surge as high as 15 feet in some areas.

Needs are substantial. 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.

Crews will have to rebuild hundreds of transmission towers and reset downed power poles and lines, said Scott Aaronson, vice president of security and preparedness for the Edison Electric Institute, the association of investorowned electric companies in the U.S.

Damage assessments were only beginning, but projections from two Boston-based disaster modeling firms — Karen Clark & Co. and AIR Worldwide — indicated insured losses to U.S. properties from Laura could reach $8 billion to $9 billion.

Ap-gerald Herbert Linda Smoot, who evacuated from Hurricane Laura in a pickup truck with eight others, reacts outside her sister’s home, as they return to see their homes for the first time, in Lake Charles, La., in the aftermath of the hurricane, Sunday.