FEMA Delivers to Louisiana Citizens
Release Date: August 21, 2006
Release Number: 1603-523a
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NEW ORLEANS , La. -- Nearly one million Louisiana households - young and elderly, rich and poor, and everyone in between - who suffered damage from Hurricane Katrina have received more than $5.1 billion in assistance from the federal government through federal, state, local and voluntary agencies.
These agencies are working in partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to continue to help the resilient Louisiana residents who were assaulted one year ago by the third strongest hurricane in the history of the United States . Here are some highlights of the record delivery of services.
Service to the citizens of Louisiana was top priority. Communication was handled by phone and face-to-face conversation.
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More registrations were taken in the first three months of after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita than were taken in the last six years from victims of all United States disasters combined.
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Total registrations of 1,446,900 and provision of more than $5.1 billion in financial assistance to help with emergency expenses, temporary housing, housing repair and replacement, income continuation during unemployment, crises counseling and many other needs of families and individuals.
- Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) were located in disaster-impacted areas staffed by federal, state, local government and voluntary agencies. During the first few months after the hurricanes 59 fixed DRCs and 12 mobile DRCs provided face-to-face assistance to more than 950,000 residents.
Finding housing for displaced Louisianians has been a major push throughout the year. Hurricane Katrina caused a migration of citizens in this country on a par with the Dust Bowl and the Civil War, events 70 and 140 years ago which permanently redistributed thousands of families.
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The FEMA staff has secured and placed more than 80,000 travel trailers in Louisiana for uprooted residents. Many of these temporary housing units are adjacent to the damaged property, enabling homeowners to work on their damaged homes.
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FEMA staff completed 530,000 interviews and received more than 480,000 travel trailer inquiries.
- Only 32 families remain in hotels or motels.
Much of FEMA's work has been on the ground. A highly visible army of Americans in navy blue jackets with the FEMA name written in bold letters across the back has been tackling the tough work from before sunrise to well past sunset.
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More than 1 million housing inspections have been completed by specially trained inspectors who each view several damaged structures daily. Inspectors electronically transmit their reports to FEMA for immediate processing. Once the inspector's report is sent, assistance checks are processed quickly. Currently, 150 inspectors are in the field.
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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with private contractors working for some Louisiana parishes, have removed more than 44.6 million cubic yards of debris under a FEMA-funded mission assignment. If this debris was loaded into trash trucks placed end to end, the trucks would reach across the United States four times.
Affordable loans are a big part of the recovery effort. Homeowners, government agencies and businesses all needed big chunks of money to repair and replace what was broken, and to continue to use what wasn't broken.
FEMA approved $725 million in Community Disaster Loans to help keep essential services operating in communities hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina. Loans and unemployment benefits are crucial to the recovery process.
- The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved more than 12,400 disaster assistance loans to business owners and non profit organizations totaling $1.3 billion and more than 72,360 loans to renters and homeowners totaling more than $4.7 billion .
- More than $320 million in disaster unemployment assistance has been provided to more than 173,000 eligible victims of Hurricane Katrina.
One of the most successful programs offered by FEMA is the National Flood Insurance Program. This program, available to every home and business in the country, provided the lion's share of rebuilding money to many homes and businesses in Louisiana .
- Last summer before the two hurricanes struck, 385,000 Louisiana homes and businesses had purchased a flood insurance policy with average coverage of $140,000 and an average premium of about $450 . About half of these properties suffered damages.
- More than $13.2 billion has been paid out under the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to policyholders in Louisiana . The average claim paid $70,000 .
- Since the hurricanes, another 43,000 NFIP policies have been written in this state. Today, more than 418,000 Louisiana homes and businesses currently hold these policies, with average coverage at $168,900.
FEMA manages federal response and recovery efforts following any national incident. FEMA also initiates mitigation activities, works with state and local emergency managers, and manages the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA became part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003.
Last Modified: Thursday, 31-Aug-2006 11:50:07