Tag Archives: Louisiana

Louisiana residents without flood insurance face uncertainty

Paul Labatut carries damaged furniture through flood water outside her home in St. Amant, Louisiana, U.S

By Sam Karlin

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – Quenton Robins watched on Sunday morning as a giant metal claw clamped down on his mother’s ruined belongings, snapping wooden cabinets with an audible crack as the operator of a giant mechanized arm slowly cleared a mound of debris from her yard in Baton Rouge.

Five feet (1.5 meters) of water swept through the homes in the quiet Park Forest neighborhood just over a week ago, shocking residents who had been told they did not live in a flood zone.

“It’s not a flood zone,” said Robins, a 27-year-old Navy veteran. “At least it didn’t used to be.”

As efforts in Louisiana turn from rescue to recovery, renters and homeowners who do not have flood insurance are facing an uncertain financial future.

Private insurers do not cover flood damage and flood insurance in the United States is underwritten by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Homeowners who live in designated high-risk flood zones are required to carry flood insurance if they have a federally backed mortgage.

In Louisiana, an estimated 42 percent of homes in high-risk areas have flood insurance, according to FEMA. Only 12.5 percent of homeowners in low and moderate-risk zones do.

Many of the areas hit hard by record rainfall last week were not considered at high risk for flooding.

Those residents without flood insurance are eligible for up to $33,000 in FEMA individual disaster assistance funds, although most will likely receive less than that, based on payments following other major disasters.

After Hurricane Katrina in 2005, FEMA paid $6.6 billion to approximately 1.07 million households and individuals in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, an average of just over $6,000 per grant, according to agency figures. Superstorm Sandy in 2012 produced an average payout of under $8,000 for about 180,000 residents of New York and New Jersey.

FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said the individual assistance is intended to supplement insurance and to provide short-term relief for immediate needs.

“It’s not designed to make survivors whole again,” said Lemaitre, adding that FEMA recommends all homeowners obtain flood insurance regardless of the risk in their area. He also said residents could apply for low-cost loans from the Small Business Administration.

FEMA has approved more than $55 million in aid so far and some 106,000 Louisiana residents have registered for emergency assistance after the record floods, which killed at least 13 and damaged more than 60,000 homes.

U.S. President Barack Obama plans to visit Baton Rouge on Tuesday.

Down the street from Robins’ mother, retired widow Betty Bailey sat in the shade of her carport, waiting for her damaged possessions to be taken away.

Bailey, who did not have flood insurance, said she moved to the neighborhood in part because it is not in a flood zone. When she applied for FEMA aid, she said they recommended she look into loans to cover her losses.

“How do they know I can afford a loan with all the bills I already have?” Bailey said. “That’s not right.”

Looking out at her neighborhood, Bailey added, “Some of these houses will never be built back.”

(Additional reporting and writing by Joseph Ax; Editing by Bill Trott)

Louisiana assesses flood damage as residents return to soaked homes

Flooding in Louisiana clean up

By Sam Karlin

GONZALES, La. (Reuters) – Ron Allen set out electric fans at his rental property in southeastern Louisiana on Wednesday, hoping to dry floors that had been swamped by nearly a foot of water.

“We’ve got to pull out the wood, pull out the vinyl. But first we gotta get the water out,” said Allen, 66. “This has never happened before.”

Record floods have been blamed for at least 13 deaths and damage to about 40,000 homes. Authorities have only begun assessing the devastation.

Rains that started last Thursday have dumped more than 2-1/2 feet (0.76 meters) of water on parts of Louisiana.

The American Red Cross has called the flooding the worst disaster in the United States since Super Storm Sandy hit the U.S. East Coast in 2012.

“Thousands of people in Louisiana have lost everything they own and need our help now,” Brad Kieserman, vice president of disaster services operations and logistics for the Red Cross, said in a statement.

As of Wednesday afternoon, shelters across the state were housing 5,435 people, according to the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services.

U.S. President Barack Obama signed a Louisiana disaster declaration on Sunday and ordered federal aid to supplement state and local efforts.

The White House said on Wednesday that Obama had directed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to “utilize all resources available” in responding to the flooding.

Swollen creeks and bayous were still overflowing on Wednesday in downstream communities such as Gonzales, as recovery efforts were beginning around Baton Rouge.

In Livingston Parish, east of Baton Rouge, at least 75 percent of homes were flooded, the sheriff’s office said on Facebook. The parish includes Denham Springs, where about 90 percent of the homes and every local school took in water, Mayor Gerard Landry told local radio station Talk 107.3.

Landry said he thought it could take two to three months to reopen schools.

“These folks that have flooded, they don’t have shoes. They don’t have underwear. They don’t have shirts. They don’t have toilet paper,” he said in the radio interview on Wednesday. “All the basic essential needs, they don’t have.”

For Terry Lyon, 56, the devastation was all too familiar. His trailer was destroyed 11 years ago in Hurricane Katrina, which struck the U.S Gulf Coast and left more than 1,800 people dead.

Lyon’s apartment in Baton Rouge flooded on Saturday, and he and his wife drove to stay with relatives on dry ground in Ascension Parish. By Monday evening, many there were underwater.

“I’ve never seen water come up like this and come after us,” said Lyon, standing outside a shelter in Gonzales, Louisiana. “I never dreamed it could get this bad.”

(Reporting by Sam Karlin; Additional reporting by Bryn Stole in Baton Rouge, La.; Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Tom Brown, Toni Reinhold)

Eleven dead, thousands of homes ravaged in Louisiana floods

Residents use a boat to navigate through the floods in Louisiana

By Sam Karlin

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – Search-and-rescue operations were still underway on Tuesday in Louisiana, where at least 11 people have died in severe floods that damaged about 40,000 homes, state officials said.

Emergency crews had already plucked more than 20,000 people and 1,000 pets from flooded areas after a storm that broke records for 24-hour rainfall in multiple locations, Governor John Bel Edwards told reporters.

Rain-swollen rivers are receding in much of the state, but state officials warned of remaining dangers. Some communities in southern Louisiana could see waters crest later in the week, according to national forecasters.

More than 8,000 people slept in emergency shelters on Monday night, unable to return to their homes, Edwards told a news conference. The state planned to impose curfews on Tuesday night in the parishes with widespread damage.

“This is a historic flooding event,” Edwards said. “It’s unprecedented.”

The storm dumped more than 2-1/2 feet (76 cm) of rain near Watson, Louisiana, from Thursday to Monday morning, the highest total reported, according to the National Weather Service.

In Abbeville, Louisiana, a 125-year-old record for 24-hour rainfall was shattered with 16.38 inches (41.61 cm) reported from Friday to Saturday, the weather service reported.

In some water-ravaged areas, houses flooded to rooflines, and coffins floated away. Motorists were trapped on highways. U.S. President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration on Sunday, with a total of 20 parishes approved by Tuesday for federal assistance.

Already, 40,000 residents have registered for disaster aid, Edwards said.

In hard-hit Denham Springs, residents were gutting waterlogged homes, dumping soaked carpets and mattresses.

Sonya Mayeux was still in disbelief. On Saturday, she awoke at 9 a.m. to rising, knee-deep water in her backyard. By 11:30 a.m., the water was nearly above her white SUV.

A neighbor rescued her family by boat. Ultimately, her house flooded nearly to the roof.

“The water just came up so fast,” she said.

“VERY LARGE DISASTER”

Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told reporters the “very large disaster” was affecting more people than flooding in March that left at least four dead and thousands of homes damaged in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Louisiana will mark the 11th anniversary this month of Hurricane Katrina, which killed more than 1,800 people when floods overwhelmed levees and broke through flood walls protecting New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005.

Louisiana’s confirmed death toll from the latest flooding rose to 11 on Tuesday, the state Health Department said. By parish, it reported five fatalities in East Baton Rouge, three in Tangipahoa, two in St. Helena, and one in Rapides.

Among those killed was Bill Borne, the founder and former chief executive of Amedisys Inc, a provider of home health and hospice care. Officials said he drowned near his home in East Baton Rouge Parish.

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington, Colleen Jenkins in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Bryn Stole in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Writing by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida; Editing by Tom Brown)

Flooding disaster that killed seven in Louisiana now menaces Texas

Richard Rossi and his 4 year old great grandson Justice wade through water in search of higher ground after their home took in water in St. Amant, Louisiana,

By Bryn Stole

LIVINGSTON, La. (Reuters) – Overwhelmed rivers in much of southern Louisiana receded slowly from record levels on Monday while crews in boats searched for more people stranded in inundated homes after three days of torrential rains that killed seven people.

While the threat of flash flooding moved west into Texas, more than 11,000 Louisianans have signed up for disaster assistance. Many are waiting for the flood waters to drain away so they can determine what can be salvaged from their sodden homes and businesses.

Emergency crews already have rescued more than 20,000 people and continued to search for more after a storm dumped more than 2 feet (61 cm) of rain in three days.

Aerial photographs on Sunday showed houses inundated in mud-colored water with only their roofs visible while the bridge over the Amite River around Port Vincent, Louisiana, was almost underwater. People had become trapped overnight in their cars when the water rose on Saturday over parts of a major interstate around Baton Rouge.

While some rivers were receding on Monday, others downstream were still cresting.

“The water started rising three or four days ago and it’s still coming up right now,” said Lonnie Wells, 59, as he stood on flooded state highway in French Settlement, a town in southern Livingston Parish.

Wells said he would try to ride out the floods with his chickens, rabbits, goats and dogs, although neighbors urged him to flag down a passing Louisiana National Guard truck to get out.

The Louisiana flooding, which prompted U.S. President Barack Obama to issue a disaster declaration, resulted in seven deaths, National Weather Service meteorologist Jennifer McNatt said. Four occurred when people drove vehicles into high waters.

“IT’S GOING TO TAKE A WHILE”

The flood waters were expected to linger.

“It is going to take a while for that water to make its way out,” McNatt, who is based in Fort Worth, Texas, said in a telephone interview.

Rivers in Louisiana crested at record levels in multiple places, with the Amite River reaching 46.2 feet (14 meters) in Denham Springs, 5 feet (1.5 meters) higher than a 1983 record, McNatt said.

In flood-ravaged Livingston Parish, scores of people woke up on Monday in packed emergency shelters, sprawled out wherever they could find room. Emergency rescuers worked through the night to bring to safety people who were still stranded in roads in the middle of subdivisions, surrounded by flood water.

Pierre and Barbara Pitard, both 76, had just minutes to leave their home in Denham Springs as the water rose rapidly. The couple fled first to a neighbor’s two-story house before moving on to a Walmart, a gas station and a community center. They were finally rescued by boat and carried to safety on Saturday night, the vessel rocking as it hit submerged pickup trucks on streets inundated by water.

Pierre Pitard accepted the damage to his home but fretted about the scope of the state’s devastation.

“It’s already under water,” he said of his house. “I’m worried about how you go about getting it fixed because you’ve got thousands of people now with the exact same problems.”

Some 11,000 people already have registered with the federal government’s disaster assistance website, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said in a Twitter post on Monday morning.

Flooding in Texas was a concern on Monday with the NWS saying a flood watch extended from Houston to the Hill Country region in the central part of the state. Rain also could menace parts of Arkansas in the next two days, McNatt said.

(Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Bill Trott)

Disaster declared for Louisiana floods that have killed five

Verot School Rd is seen covered in floodwaters in this handout picture taken by the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development in Lafayette

By Byrn Stole

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration on Sunday for flood-ravaged Louisiana, where at least five people have died and emergency crews have rescued more than 7,000 people stranded by historic flooding.

Governor John Bel Edwards said residents had been pulled from swamped cars, flooded homes and threatened hospitals across the southern part of the state. The already soaked region is expected to get more rain from a storm system stretching from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio Valley.

While the brunt of the storm that brought torrential rains was moving west toward Texas, Louisiana residents should remain cautious, the governor said at a news conference.

“Even with the sunshine out today intermittently, the waters are going to continue to rise in many areas, so this is no time to let the guard down,” Edwards said, calling the flooding unprecedented.

Obama issued the disaster declaration after speaking with Edwards, the White House said in a statement.

The initial declaration makes federal aid available in the parishes of East Baton Rouge, Livingston, St. Helena and Tangipahoa. Edwards said in a statement that other parishes could be added to the list.

Emergency officials still were working on strategies to rescue an undetermined number of people trapped by the waters.

“We’re very much still in the search and rescue mode,” said James Waskcom, director of the state’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

In Livingston Parish, phone service was spotty due to the high waters and most shelters were full. A Greyhound Bus traveling from Memphis, Tennessee, to Baton Rouge was diverted to a shelter because of flooded roadways.

About 5,000 people had been forced to sleep in shelters overnight around the state, said Marketa Walters, head of Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services.

Louisiana State Police Colonel Michael Edmonson said helicopters were transporting food and water to those still trapped by floods. Helicopters also were transporting some seriously ill people to areas outside the high waters.

Some 1,700 members of the Louisiana National Guard have been deployed for rescue efforts.

Even as the state grappled with high waters, the National Weather Service forecast heavy rain from the Gulf Coast as far north as the Ohio Valley through Monday, with a threat of flash flooding.

A flash flood watch was in place until Monday morning for Houston, where rains killed at least eight in late April.

At least five people had died in Louisiana from the high water. Ronda Durbin, a spokeswoman for Tangipahoa Parish, said by telephone that searchers on Sunday recovered the body of a man reported swept away on Friday.

The body of a woman also was recovered from a submerged vehicle in the parish, she said.

On Saturday, the body of a woman was recovered from the Tickfaw River, in St. Helena Parish northeast of Baton Rouge, after a car in which she was riding was swept away.

A 54-year-old man in Greensburg in the northern part of the state died when his vehicle was swept off the road, state police said.

The body of a 68-year-old man was recovered on Friday near Baker after he drowned, said William “Beau” Clark, the coroner in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Another person is also believed missing in St. Helena Parish, Edwards said.

(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington and Laila Kearney and Chris Prentice in New York; Editing by Bill Trott and Richard Chang)

Motiva refinery in Louisiana surrounded by high water from flooding

Smoke is seen rising from the Motiva Enterprises refinery after a fire broke out in Convent, Louisiana

HOUSTON (Reuters) – The fire-damaged hydrocracking unit at Motiva Enterprises’  235,000 barrel per day Convent, Louisiana, refinery was surrounded by high water on Friday from heavy rains overnight, sources familiar with plant operations said.

The other units at the refinery were not in danger of flooding from heavy rains that were continuing to fall in south Louisiana on Friday, the sources said.

The structure of the 45,000 bpd heavy oil hydrocracker, called the H-Oil unit, was heavily damaged in a blaze on Thursday and efforts to limit environmental damage from fighting the fire are contributing to the flooding around the HCU.

Rubber blocks were that were placed in storm drains on Thursday to prevent hydrocarbons from getting into the storm water system have become stuck, preventing drainage of the high water, the sources said.

The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning for south Louisiana on Friday, saying heavy rains since Wednesday have saturated the ground.

An initial assessment on Thursday of damage to the H-Oil unit’s structure was that repairs could take between one and four months, but a more detailed inspection and damage assessment cannot be conducted until the HCU cools down from the fire, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

The detailed inspection could narrow or expand the time needed for repairs. The H-Oil unit’s reactors, where hydrogen is mixed with gas oil in motor fuel production, appeared to have little damage from the blaze in the initial assessment.

No injuries were reported from the blaze that lasted about four hours and all other units at the refinery remained in operation, Motiva said on Thursday.

Hydrocrackers use hydrogen under high pressure to produce motor fuels from gas oil produced by crude distillation units.

(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Matthew Lewis)

Black Lives Matter activist sues Baton Rouge police over arrest

Black Lives Matter Protest

(Reuters) – A prominent activist in the Black Lives Matter movement, DeRay McKesson, on Thursday sued the chief of the Baton Rouge police department and other officials over the arrests of nearly 200 demonstrators during peaceful protests about police killings.

In the federal civil rights lawsuit, which seeks class action status, McKesson and fellow protesters Kira Marrero and Gloria La Riva complained that police were unnecessarily aggressive in arresting them on July 9. The lawsuit covers arrests in the Louisiana capital between July 6 and July 11.

The East Baton Rouge Parish Attorney’s Office said they had no immediate comment on the lawsuit.

The activists were protesting the July 5 shooting of a black man, Alton Sterling, outside a convenience store, one of a string of high-profile police killings of black people by white officers over the past two years that were caught on video and reopened debate about race and discrimination in the United States.

McKesson, known for his activism on social media and who ran in the 2016 Democratic Party primary for mayor of his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, said in the lawsuit that demonstrators sought to have all arrest records expunged as well as unspecified damages.

The allegations in the lawsuit include 16 violations of law by Baton Rouge police, excessive use of force, conspiracy to deprive protesters of their civil rights, negligence and arrests without probable cause.

The 23-page complaint said charges of simple obstruction of a highway against nearly 200 protesters who were arrested were ultimately dropped by the local prosecutors office, though they still had to pay administrative and court fees.

“Throughout the protests, the Defendants responded in a militarized and aggressive manner,” the complaint said. “All class members now have criminal arrest records, which in this digital age could adversely affect their future employment, education, reputations, and professional licensing.”

A day after Sterling’s death, another black man, Philando Castile, was shot to death by a policeman during a traffic stop near St. Paul, Minnesota.

The back-to-back killings brought out protesters nationwide but after a rally in Dallas, Texas, a gunman shot dead five police officers in an ambush. Days later, three Baton Rouge police officers were also killed in an ambush.

Authorities said the shootings of officers by black gunmen were apparently in anger over the deaths of black people at the hands of police, but they were not connected to the peaceful protest movement.

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; editing by Grant McCool)

U.S. leaders seek unity at vigil for slain Louisiana officers

police saluting the caskets of fallen police officers

By Sam Karlin

BATON ROUGE, La. (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Attorney General Loretta Lynch called for unity to honor three slain Louisiana police officers, speaking at a memorial service on Thursday in Baton Rouge where they were gunned down this month by a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.

Several hundred people and dozens of law enforcement officers attended the vigil, where Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards also implored the community to seek peace and healing after the July 17 attack that also wounded three other officers.

The shootings came amid a series of deadly encounters igniting debate over policing and minorities in the United States. The killings rattled a city already grappling with protests after the fatal police shooting on July 5 of Alton Sterling, a 37-year-old black man confronted by officers while selling CDs outside a convenience store.

Biden said he heard that Sterling’s aunt, who raised him, had prayed with a slain officer’s father.

“Loss is loss is loss,” he said, speaking at a church in Baton Rouge, the state capital. “Now the city has to reach out, the country has to reach out to law enforcement, and let you know how much we care.”

On the stage behind him, three chairs sat empty, decorated with sashes and uniform caps representing the officers.

Choking back tears, two of the officers’ wives recalled phone calls and door knocks on an initially normal Sunday morning that changed their lives forever.

Slain Baton Rouge police officers Matthew Gerald, 41, and Montrell Jackson, 32, and East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Deputy Brad Garafola, 45, were killed in what Louisiana officials described as a calculated attack. Shooter Gavin Long, 29, a black former Marine with ties to an African-American anti-government group, was also killed in an exchange of gunfire.

“No family should ever have to be without their loved ones, especially when these three heroes could be home had a person not been filled with so much hatred,” said Tonja Garafola.

Jackson’s wife, Trenisha, recalled his wish to see healing in the city and directed the crowd to repeat sentiments that he had posted on Facebook in the tense days before his death.

“I will not let hate infect my heart,” the crowd repeated.

The assault followed the deaths of five officers in Dallas, Texas on July 7, who were shot by another black former U.S. serviceman. President Barack Obama traveled to Dallas in the wake of those shootings.

One of the wounded Louisiana officers, Nicholas Tullier, 41, remains hospitalized in critical condition, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday. At the vigil, Sheriff Sid Gautreaux said he is “fighting for his life.”

(Writing by Letitia Stein; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and James Dalgleish)

Bikers ride through Baton Rouge in support of fallen police

Several hundred bikers gathered in Baton Rouge on Tuesday and rode in a procession to the city’s police headquarters in a show of support for the policemen shot and killed by a gunman at the weekend.

The bikers, many carrying U.S. flags and revving their engines, rode past the gas station where the policemen where killed en route to the police station.

Spectators gathered on the side of the streets to cheers them on. One woman carried a banner reading ‘cops lives matter.’

President Barack Obama has told law enforcement officials that Americans recognize, respect and depend upon the difficult and dangerous work they do, a rallying call of support following the ambush killings of eight officers in Dallas and Baton Rouge.

Three police officers were gunned down in Louisiana’s state capital on Sunday by a U.S. Marine Corps veteran with ties to an African-American anti-government group, authorities said. On July 7, another former U.S. serviceman espousing militant black nationalist views killed five Dallas officers.

Authorities identified the Baton Rouge gunman as former Sergeant Gavin Long of Kansas City, Missouri, an Iraq war veteran, and said he seemed determined to slay as many police officers as possible before a SWAT team marksman cut short his attack.

The single gunshot that killed Long, 29, was fired by an officer from about 100 yards away, police have said as they deepened their investigation into the second racially charged armed assault on U.S. law enforcement this month.

Louisiana officer shot and killed during pedestrian stop

(Reuters) – A Louisiana sheriff’s deputy died of gunshot wounds on Wednesday after being shot three times in the back by a pedestrian he had stopped in a high-crime suburb of New Orleans, the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

Sheriff Newell Normand told reporters at a late night news conference that deputy David F. Michel, Jr., 50, got into a struggle with the suspect around noon local time, believing the man was following another individual.

Normand said the suspect, identified as 19-year-old Jerman Neveaux, pulled a revolver and fired a total of three shots into Michel’s back during the confrontation.

Michel, a detective who was assigned to a street crimes unit, died at a local hospital.

“David, I wish I had 1,000 of him,” an emotional Normand said, adding that the shooting was “a cold-blooded murder.”

Neveaux fled into the surrounding neighborhood and was later apprehended.

Bystander video published online by local broadcaster FOX8 showed two of several officers striking a prone Neveaux more than a dozen times as he is arrested, footage which Normand said his office would investigate.

Neveaux was treated for minor injuries at a hospital. Normand said Neveaux admitted to the shooting, saying he was on probation and did not want to go to jail for possessing a firearm.

Michel worked as a reserve deputy for the department starting in 2007 and became a full-time deputy in February of 2013, the office said.

(Reporting by Letitia Stein in Tampa, Florida and Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang and Sandra Maler)