HURRICANE RECOVERY UPDATE — The Southwest and Central part of Louisiana are still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Laura which swept through the state two weeks ago. However there is some good news in that more parishes have become eligible for financial assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency . During a press conference yesterday afternoon Governor John Bel Edwards made the announcement.
"They are Grant, Natchitoches, Rapides, Sabine, and Winn so that brings us to a total of eleven parishes that are qualified for critical needs assistance," explained Edwards.
Those living in these parishes may be eligible to receive up to $500 in FEMA assistance based on a questionnaire which they can access and register for on the website: www.disasterassistance.gov
There is still a power outage affecting approximately 137,000 people in Southwest Louisiana as work crews are dealing with severe devastation in clearing debris and repairing the power grid. Entergy Louisiana said it will likely be mid-September before Calcasieu and Cameron parishes will have power restored as major transmission lines and hundreds of miles of distribution wires were severely damaged. Michelle Bourg is Entergy’s Vice President for Transmission Asset Management.
"We're prioritizing and dedicating resources to those paths, those lines that we think will most quickly and most efficiently restore service to our distribution network and then eventually to our customers," Bourg explained.
The Louisiana death toll from Hurricane Laura has risen to 26. Seven deaths were caused by aftermath work-related accidents such as storm cleanup including people falling from roofs or being hit by tree limbs. Other deaths have been attributed to improper use of portable electric generators as victims were overcome by carbon monoxide exhaust. As for Covid-19 restrictions, Edwards said he will announce a decision whether or not to move Louisiana into Phase 3 based on White House Coronavirus Task Force guidelines before his current Phase 2 order expires Friday.
