Louisiana floods may be the worst U.S. natural disaster since Hurricane Sandy
Nearly a week after catastrophic rains barreled down on Louisiana, burying swaths of the state underwater, residents are still struggling to recover from what could be the worst U.S. natural disaster since 2012’s Hurricane Sandy.
Around 30,000 residents have been rescued and at least 13 people have died, state officials confirmed.
More than 85,000 people have registered for federal disaster assistance in the days since President Barack Obama declared the floods a natural disaster on Aug. 14, said Mike Steele, a spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Homeland and Security and Emergency Preparedness.
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“We’re in the middle of still fighting the flood in some areas, but we’ve already started the recovery process in others,” he told Mashable on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s a multi-phase attack from the state at this point,” he said.
The American Red Cross said the devastating floods, which affected nearly a third of the state’s 64 parishes, is likely the nation’s worst natural disaster since Sandy pummeled the East Coast, destroying waterfront communities and displacing thousands of families for years.
“Relief efforts in Louisiana are challenging, with life-threatening floods and road closures making conditions dangerous,” Brad Kieserman, vice president of disaster services operations and logistics for the Red Cross, said Monday in a media release.
The Red Cross estimated its response to the Louisiana floods could cost more than $10 million, an amount that includes providing community shelters, serving prepared meals and dispatching dozens of emergency response vehicles.
The total damages from the floods, though, is likely to climb into the billions.
Hurricane Sandy, by comparison, killed at least 88 Americans and racked up nearly $72 billion in total U.S. economic damages.
Steele said flood damages in Louisiana had already surpassed an estimated $6-7 million, the state’s threshold for receiving assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
“It will probably take weeks to determine the full impact, partly because the fight is still going on in some areas,” he said.
He noted that, just minutes before the Thursday phone call with Mashable, a weather app alerted him to a flash flood warning this evening near Baton Rouge.
“We’re at the heart of when we are usually impacted by tropical weather,” he said. “There’s a number of dreary scenarios. As full as these waterways are, [a tropical storm] would be terrible right now.”
Maria Gallucci was a Science Reporter at Mashable. She was previously the energy and environment reporter at International Business Times; features editor of Makeshift magazine; clean economy reporter for InsideClimate News; and a correspondent in Mexico City until 2011. Maria holds degrees in journalism and Spanish from Ohio University's Honors Tutorial College.
