Official website of the Department of Homeland SecurityOriginal linkOriginal author: felicia.jordan

BATON ROUGE, La. — Livingston Parish was one of the hardest hit areas by the historic flood event of August 2016 and Denham Springs Elementary was one of the schools most impacted.“When we saw the classrooms, we knew everything was lost. The rooms were just destroyed,” said Gail DeLee, Denham Springs Elementary School Principal.  The school is over 40 years old and the flood waters severely damaged the aging buildings and everything inside.“My first visit to our campus was with my husband and my 16 year old son.  It was very...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Randolph County is a sparsely populated area with a little more than 17,000 people living within its 656 square miles. But after the severe storms between April 26 and May 19, residents and officials adopted a proactive stance toward disaster recovery.County officials and residents received help from the State and FEMA during formation of the Randolph County Recovery Committee (RCRC). The committee is formed according to a model developed by the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD).The committee is able to combine the resources of the...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Disaster recovery officials from the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management and FEMA urge disaster-impacted Arkansas municipalities in Fulton and Searcy counties to get Requests for Public Assistance (RPAs) to ADEM no later than Aug. 18.The request is an official, required notification to FEMA that a municipality will seek FEMA’s 75 percent reimbursement for eligible disaster-related infrastructure repairs (roads, bridges, parks, public utilities, etc.); disaster debris removal and emergency protective measures caused by the disaster, such as police overtime.Municipalities in Fulton and Searcy counties may fax the one-page...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Would you invest $400 for a chance to get back up to $250,000? How about $1,000 or $2,000? Still sound like a good deal?Putting it another way, would you risk losing your $250,000 home in a flood because you didn’t buy a preferred or standard risk National Flood Insurance Program policy usually costing from $400-$2,000 a year? Just a few inches of water can cause thousands of dollars in damage to walls, floors, furniture, carpets and appliances.Everyone lives in a potential flood zone. You do not have...