The first out-of-state congressman to survey Louisiana’s damage from catastrophic flooding blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency response as “pitiful.”
The Associated Press reports that U.S. Rep. John Mica, a Florida Republican who chairs a subcommittee with jurisdiction over FEMA, toured the destruction today with U.S. Rep. Garret Graves, a Republican who represents much of the most heavily damaged region.
Mica says housing aid for the tens of thousands of people displaced by floodwaters two weeks ago has been sluggish and FEMA has been too slow to set up mobile homes that give people somewhere to stay while they repair their houses.
He says FEMA needs more “flexibility” in its programs to make them more adaptable to individual disasters.
“This is one of the biggest displacements of people I’ve ever seen in the country, and the response is pitiful from the federal level,” Mica says.
Only one manufactured housing unit has been set up so far. FEMA regional director Gerard Stolar says the agency is working to speed aid to people displaced by the flooding.
“We’re working very closely with the state. We’re well aware of the devastation that’s out there, that this is an historic event,” Stolar says.
He says that FEMA’s priority is to get people back into their homes and that 50 to 60 additional manufactured housing units are ready to be set up for homeowners after inspections of their property are complete.
“I’m very confident we’re going to be able to ramp up the capacity for this in the very near future,” Stolar says.
More than 100,000 homes are estimated to be damaged from flooding described as the worst disaster since Superstorm Sandy, after a storm that started Aug. 12 dumped as much as 2 feet of rain in some areas over two days.
More than 1,400 people remained in shelters today.
