Opening up: Rouses will open its first Baton Rouge supermarket at 8 a.m. Wednesday at Long Farm Village. The store’s 200 full-time and part-time employees will include workers from Rouses’ Denham Springs store, which took in more than one foot of water. Rouses closed on 4.8 acres of land in Long Farm Village in June 2014. The 53,545-square-foot supermarket will anchor Long Farm Village, a retail development at the intersection of Airline Highway and the extension of Antioch Road. A Starbucks, Five Guys hamburger restaurant, Zaxby’s and a Pacific Dental Services office also will be located at Long Farm Village.
Getting help: More than 115,000 people across south Louisiana have signed up for federal disaster assistance after the catastrophic flooding, The Associated Press reports. State officials say $20 million in FEMA homeowner assistance had been distributed as of today. A storm that began Aug. 12 dumped as much as 2 feet of rain in some areas over 48 hours. At least 13 deaths have been attributed to the flooding, and more than 60,000 homes were damaged by the storm. About 2,500 people remained in shelters today. Federal and Louisiana authorities say more than 26,000 people have filed flood insurance claims for flooding damage. The state is urging people to help those with damage muck out their homes. Volunteers can register online.
Moving forward: During a special meeting held Monday, the Metro Council approved measures to make it less challenging for homeowners to rebuild after last week’s flooding. The council approved a measure waiving and suspending enforcement of parts of the Unified Development Code to allow residents to keep temporary housing in front of their homes for at least 180 days. The council also waived permit fees on property damaged during the flood as well as parts of city-parish’s noise ordinance to allow for construction work to take place in or near residential areas from 5 a.m. until sunset. The council also granted administrative leave with pay to city-parish employees unable to report to work because they’ve been impacted by flooding. William Daniel, the city-parish’s chief administrative officer, told the council that roughly one-third of city-parish workers had not returned to work as of Monday because of the flooding. Get more information.
