Over $1.16B awarded to survivors 6 months after Hurricane Ida's landfall, FEMA says

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) -- Six months after Hurricane Ida's landfall, FEMA has announced that more than $1.16 billion in assistance has been awarded to survivors.

FEMA reports the following numbers since Ida's landfall:

Individual Assistance

FEMA says since Ida's landfall, more than 563,500 applications for individual assistance have been approved, totaling more than $1.16 billion. The agency says it has paid more than $334 million in grants for repairs and more than $309 million in rental assistance.

FEMA opened 40 Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs) across 17 of the hardest-hit parishes, assisting more than 76,000 Louisianians with disaster assistance applications and providing other services, such as uploading information to survivors’ files and giving referrals to other agencies.

Small Business Administration

According to FEMA, the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has approved more than 25,500 applications for low-interest disaster loans totaling $1.28 billion including:

• 25,637 home loans for nearly $1.2 billion.
• 1,623 business loans for more than $103 million.

Hazard Mitigation/National Flood Insurance Program

The agency says the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) has paid out more than 14,500 claims totaling more than $640 million.

Public Assistance

FEMA’s Public Assistance Program assistance allows for reimbursement for eligible work including debris removal, emergency protective measures and repairs to infrastructure and other structures. FEMA reports:

• 510 applicants have requested assistance from FEMA’s Public Assistance and more than $150 million has been obligated to date.
• Approximately 22.5 million cubic yards of debris have been removed. That is nearly the equivalent of filling the Superdome 2 times (11 mill cu yd = Superdome).

FEMA Direct Temporary Housing

FEMA says 1,481 households are currently in temporary housing units and other facilities directly leased by the agency and 4,503 households have been approved for FEMA’s Direct Temporary Housing program.

Hurricane Ida made landfall as one of Louisiana's most destructive storms on August 26, 2021, in Port Fourchon.