Terrebonne Hurricane Ida Base Camps to Close End of February

Terrebonne Parish Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness Director, Earl Eues, updated the numbers for Hurricane Ida recovery at last night’s Terrebonne Parish Council Committee meeting. He started by sharing that FEMA has distributed $226 million in the parish due to Hurricane Ida and the Small Business Administration (SBA) has distributed $168 million. Of the $168 million, $157 million went to homeowners, and $10.5 million have gone to businesses to help with recovery. He said the numbers continue to rise as FEMA gets through the cases.

There’s a new Disaster Recovery Center at the East Park Recreation Center in East Houma for anyone who needs help or has issues regarding FEMA or SBA. The center runs Monday through Saturday. Eues reported that the two basecamps in Terrebonne Parish will be closed at the end of February and they are giving people living in the camps options to find more permanent housing than they have at the basecamp. The state is moving into a different phase of recovery and will continue to help those who need housing.

Director of Planning and Zoning Chris Pulaski expanded on the update. The Scott Lane basecamp has 120 occupants and Williams Avenue has 28 occupants. He said APTIM, through the state housing initiative, has delivered 1,845 travel trailers where 1,673 of them are occupied. Through the state and GOHSEP, there are 207 trailers at the Rebecca Plantation group. He said they are waiting to hear from the state where the next group site will be because the Rebbeca site is at full capacity.

FEMA, as of last week, has 180 homes occupied and most of them are mobile units. They have 1,539 units that are waiting to be leased in that are waiting on different things such as hookups and permitting. FEMA started Gage Court, which has 49 locations and is located off of Highway 316 on the Eastside of Houma; they have identified two other sites in Schriever. They have around five other sites where they are considering. They are working with several commercial park owners who have properties that are existing RV or mobile home parks.

GOHSEP applications are still being accepted online or by calling 844-268-0301. Pulaski shared that the first thing they will ask is what your FEMA registration number is, so if they don’t have it, they need to get it first. However, FEMA has stopped registrations on its end. He said if it’s the case someone doesn’t have a FEMA registration number but needs to file through GOHSEP, to go to a DRC to speak to someone directly to receive the help needed.