Southwest Louisiana continues rebuilding five years after Hurricane Laura made landfall. Calcasieu Parish President Judd Bares says months after the vicious storm, the parish developed a long-term hurricane recovery plan which helped produce a more resilient and upgraded infrastructure system.
“It’s a document that we came up with our staff, the jurors, with outside stakeholders, federal partners, how we’ll continue to work together and lead and manage the recovery,” Bares explained.
Bares says drainage projects and waterworks projects have seen major investments. He says the Police Jury completed a $200 million project to remove debris from drainage laterals following Hurricanes Laura and Delta.
“If there’s any adding, it was some folks from Cameron Parish moving north. And we did have some folks that moved from Calcasieu Parish up to Beauregard,” Bares said.
Hurricane Laura made landfall as a Category 4 storm with 150 mile per hour winds on August 27, 2020, near Cameron. It caused $17 billion in damage and killed 33 people statewide. 95% of the buildings in Lake Charles sustained damage and the state received $1 billion for recovery from hurricanes Laura and Delta. Delta hit the same area six weeks after Laura.
Bares says there are some residents still battling with their insurance company over hurricane repairs.
“There are still folks out there that are still going back and forth. Obviously, these are more extreme cases, but it’s the fact that they’re having to do it, still,” Bares said.
