With rebuilding efforts underway in East Baton Rouge Parish, the Metro Council will convene at 4 p.m. today to suspend parts of city-parish law to allow residents to place temporary housing in front of their flood-ravaged homes for at least 180 days.
As it stands, the law only allows for temporary housing to sit in front of residents’ homes for 30 days, says Councilman Buddy Amoroso. But the city-parish suspended the provision after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 to permit temporary housing for longer periods of time, and the city-parish is trying to do the same thing now as residents gut and rebuild their homes following last week’s devastating floods.
“Right now what we’re trying to do is get the government out of the way as they’re trying to get their houses together,” Amoroso says.
The temporary housing, which will include travel trailers and mobile homes, would not be permanent, and the council would re-evaluate the measure after 180 days, says Amoroso.
“We would never allow this if it was not for the flooding, if it was not for an emergency situation,” he says. “I feel it is a prudent thing to do.”
The council also will be briefed on flood-related issues in the city-parish during today’s special meeting, which was called last week. It also will vote on whether to grant administrative leave with pay to employees unable to return to work due to the Great Flood of 2016.
According to preliminary estimates from the city-parish’s Department of Information Services GIS Division, floodwaters had inundated 58% of East Baton Rouge over the course of a week.
The flooding has damaged approximately 40,000 homes in Baton Rouge and its surrounding areas, and at least 13 people have died.
The devastation has been widespread, and Amoroso says parts of his district look like a “war zone.”
“All of Baton Rouge was hit hard. That’s one thing that we see,” Amoroso says. “The floodwaters did not discriminate.”
The Metro Council meets at 4 p.m. today on the ninth floor of City Hall, 222 St. Louis St.
—Alexandria Burris
