Setting up mobile homes after Louisiana storms is slow-going

Associated Press

4 years ago

CORRECTS DATE TO OCT. 8, 2020 - Debris from Hurricane Laura is piled up in Bell City, La. Thursday, Oct. 8, 2020, as Hurricane Delta approached the Gulf Coast. Louisiana residents still recovering from the devastation of a powerful hurricane less than two months ago braced for another hit as Hurricane Delta steamed north through the Gulf on Thursday after swiping Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Hurricane Laura ravaged southwest Louisiana six months ago, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency still is trying to set up temporary mobile homes for several thousand families.

The agency estimates the work won’t be complete until more than a year after the August 2020 storm. John Long is the FEMA official coordinating recovery work in Louisiana.

He said about 1,250 families are in the temporary housing units.

That’s fewer than half the 3,300 families mainly in Calcasieu Parish the federal agency expects to eventually house.

Long acknowledged the process is slow.

But he said FEMA will have to build several mobile home parks for the remaining temporary units.