Jan Wesner Childs
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has shut down more than a dozen drive-thru disaster recovery centers across southwestern Louisiana as Hurricane Delta marches toward landfall in the region.
The centers were set up to help provide socially distanced paperwork processing to residents trying to rebuild after Hurricane Laura, which battered Lake Charles, Cameron Parish and other communities just six weeks ago, destroying more than 10,000 homes and leaving 35,000 others with major damage.
FEMA has approved more than $160 million in aid.
But now it's among the many government agencies, nonprofit organizations and others involved in the rebuilding effort that are pushing the pause button on some operations while they wait to see what fresh damage will be wrought by Delta.
(MORE: The Latest Forecast For Hurricane Delta)
For those hit hardest, the game is getting old.
"School was just fixing to kick back off and everything’s being shut down again," Tim Dupont, volunteer fire chief in the Cameron Parish communities of Cameron and Creole, told weather.com in an interview Thursday morning.
"Now it’s kind of, just throw your hands up in the air, you don’t know."
A blue tarp is put on a roof in Lake Charles, Louisiana, shortly after Hurricane Laura struck on Aug. 27, 2020. Now the city is bracing for Hurricane Delta, while homes and buildings across the region are still under repair.Dupont said "we have no clue now" when electricity and other services will be restored. Some parts of the parish saw their lights come back on last week, but Cameron and Creole remain in the dark.
Laura made landfall Aug. 27 in Cameron Parish, nearly wiping out entire communities, and then tore a path inland through Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish, where countless roofs are still covered in blue tarps.
The plastic sheets are all that stand between the fury of the next storm and whatever homeowners were able to salvage from the last.
Some Calcasieu Parish offices just reopened Monday. Public libraries reopened Wednesday, only to close down again Thursday.
City crews are still working to clear and pick up debris, which now could turn into projectiles in Delta's winds. Trash service is on hold until after the storm.
Meanwhile, all of Calcasieu Parish – more than 200,000 people – is once again under a mandatory evacuation order.
Evacuation orders were issued for Hurricane Delta in Cameron Parish, too, although communities like Cameron and Creole are still under a mandatory evacuation order from Laura. Volunteer feeding centers closed down and a parish meeting to talk about Laura recovery was postponed.
(MORE: Hurricane Delta Drives Louisianans From Their Homes Yet Again)
Just about the only people now living in those two towns are Dupont and his crew of 20 firefighters, all of them volunteers. Their home destroyed by Laura, they've been living in campers, prepared to protect their coverage area in case of a fire.
"I don’t think people realize that there was nothing left down here. It was completely decimated by Hurricane Laura," he said.
Dupont said the other 900 or so residents remain scattered in other locations, and no one knows how many will come back, or when.
"It’s back to back (storms) and they just really are just aggravated and frustrated," he said.
On Thursday morning, the Dupont and his crew loaded up the last of their vehicles and trailers and headed west to Texas to ride out the storm.
When asked if there was anything they could do to protect themselves and their storm-battered properties from Delta, Dupont replied:
"No, except get out the way."
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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