Flood Victims May Receive FEMA Assistance Soon
The cleanup continues nearly one week after heavy rain flooded parts of Acadiana.
Residents and business owners are looking for assistance and now, FEMA may step in soon.
"It's never flooded, especially in this area."
The flooding caught Terry LeBlue off-guard. She lives in Crowley off of Capitol Drive and received about six to eight inches of water in her home.
"It's very trying. This is very, very hard. You watch your life float away. We didn't have enough time to get everything out," said LeBlue.
She is now staying with family. Like many affected by the floods, she doesn't have insurance.
"Some of us are in such a dangerous situation. We don't know what to do."
"A lot of people don't have flood insurance. Some people do, but a lot of people don't. Without that federal assistance, it will be devastating on a lot of people," said Acadia Parish Emergency Preparedness Director, Lee Hebert.
He says residents and business owners need to report damages to their parish homeland security and emergency preparedness office or police jury. Once the water goes down, crews from the state will send teams to survey the damage to put an official dollar amount on the aftermath.
"There's a certain threshold with the amount of damage that you have to have parish and statewide to be considered for federal aid. It's important for us to get a good handle on what's going on, then it's up to the President," said Hebert.
Governor Jindal declared a state of emergency after several parishes did the same. In Acadiana, that includes Acadia, Evangeline and Saint Landry Parishes.
It's important if you received damage to report it to your parish government so they can include it in their report before sending damage numbers to FEMA.
Chris Welty
cwelty@katctv.com
Quote