A year on since Hurricane Ida made landfall recovery is still on the minds of many who weathered the personal disaster of losing homes. While recovery still grinds on slowly, the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness is still working to make things right again.
From lower Jefferson Parish to Lafourche, Terrebonne, St. Charles, St. John and Tangipahoa Parishes; the lingering devastation is all around.
"We still have thousands of people living in temporary housing situations," says Michael Steele, the Communications Director for GOHSEP. "Either through the state's shelter program that uses mostly RV trailers or through the FEMA MHU program using the smaller mobile home unit."
For Steele the recovery from Ida is an on-going day-by-day process, as the wheels of the Federal Government grind slowly and it takes a long time for money to arrive from Washington D.C.
"We're working with our local partners, we're starting to see a lot of announcements about hazard mitigation money and some of the long term recovery money that will become available," Steele says. "Those things kind of take years to play out. In some ways we're happy about the pace of recovery but we know there's still a long way to go and a lot to be done until we get everyone back in their home."
One particular project that was just finished is the $40-million dollar Isle de Jean Charles relocation effort. Jean Charles is a disappearing island being retaken by the sea. The government just resettled the people of the Jean Charles Choctaw indigenous settlement who lived in the small Terrebonne Parish hamlet to new homes miles away. This is a success story for FEMA and the people working on recovery from Ida. Steele says, "In order to meet the FEMA standards and to make sure everything's done properly there's still a lot of different projects, there could be anything from flood control and different things to the relocation of some communities. Elevation of homes is a big step. There's a lot to be done."
Still, Steele says the work goes on with one eye still focused on the Gulf and what could come our way rather quickly.
"One of the key messages for the public right now is we're all fortunate that it's been a slow season so far this year, but there's no guarantee that will continue," Steele explains, "We all hope it does but it's important to stay prepared and routinely check those emergency supplies."
