Two summers ago, Hurricane Laura destroyed Betty's bungalow at the edge of Lake Charles, a city surrounded by oil refinery in southwest Louisiana. The Federal Emergency Management Agency helped at the beginning, paying for Ms. Swope and her son to stay in hotels, putting a trailer in their yard, and giving them money to fix their house.
Many storm survivors don't have insurance and that covered a fraction of what repairs would cost. Congress approved additional funds for the victims of Hurricane Laura, but they have yet to reach Louisiana.
While Ms. Swope sought money to rebuild, her son, who had been paralyzed in a diving accident, was struggling. Adrian was confined to his bed because his room was small. His spirit and body began to decline over time.
After Hurricane Laura pushed him out of his home, Adrian passed away. The man was 47 years old. His death was blamed on his isolated life in the trailer. She said that if one room was fixed, he would be here today.
As the United States struggles to protect its citizens against the worsening effects of climate change, returning survivors to their homes after disasters has emerged as a failure. The problem is not money. Rules often make little sense to the officials in charge.
A growing class of displaced Americans are scattered across motel rooms and trailer parks in an archipelago of loss.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are the main agencies that help victims of disasters. A lack of planning and coordination is preventing those programs from being designed in an earlier time.
Without affordable options for permanent housing, many survivors just leave and hollow out towns.
Thousands of people are still living in government housing after back-to-back disasters in Louisiana, more than in any other comparable disaster.
Feb.
There are a lot of households in FEMA housing.
After a disaster is declared, the agency provides free housing for 18 months.
The month of August.
There was a disaster.
The declaration was made.
There was a spike in emergency shelter demand after Hurricane Laura.
Even as the country approaches the height of hurricanes, over 4,000 Louisiana families are still in FEMA housing.
Graves is a Republican congressman from Louisiana.
The patchwork of post-disaster housing programs is being improved by the Biden administration. The White House wants Congress to create a permanent program to pay for home rebuilding, as FEMA has a working group focused on that.
Almost one-third of the nation's housing stock is at high risk for disasters according to the data firm.
Europe is hot. Scientists say that heat waves in Europe are increasing at a faster rate than anywhere else on the planet. Europe may see a heat wave due to global warming.
The wind is powerful. Plans to build a wind farm off the coast of Catalonia, a part of Spain that is still highly dependent on fossil fuels, would generate urgent renewable energy. Critics say the plan would change the character of a region that has not changed much since the 20th century.
It was a bad assessment of Australia. According to a new report by the Australian government, the country's environment and wildlife are facing more threats than previously thought. Climate change, habitat loss, pollution and mining have already contributed to a decline in the populations of some animals.
Coal plants are making a comeback. Coal-burning power plants are getting new lives as renewable energy projects because they are already wired into the power grid.
Lake Charles is 30 miles north of the Gulf Coast and shows the breakdown in America's post disaster housing system.
After Laura, President Biden went to Lake Charles to talk about making America more resilient. He promised that he would help you build back better than before.
Much of Lake Charles is in tatters.
There are strip malls and gas stations on the main roads. Half of the Capital One Tower is boarded up.
The houses are the most striking Lake Charles is seen from above and from the street.
Bryan C.Beam is the administrator for Calcasieu Parish, which includes Lake Charles. Mr. Beam said that between 8,000 and 12,000 housing units were lost in the parish.
Workers left because of the lack of places to live. Businesses haven't come back because they haven't been able to hire people. Lake Charles is now home to about 80,000 people.
Mr. Beam is worried about a lot of people that will not come back.
Rene was the owner of a mobile home just south of Lake Charles when the storm hit. The structure was unlivable due to the storm. She slept on her mother's couch.
She has a small house. I had a difficult time. FEMA gave her a trailer after six months.
According to the Lake Charles mayor, it took 10 months for FEMA to house all the people who were eligible for help after the storm.
She appreciated FEMA's help. She thinks there was a less expensive solution.
About two-thirds of the total repair costs were paid for by FEMA. She said the agency paid more than $3,000 a month for her to stay in a trailer west of Lake Charles.
If FEMA had bought her a mobile home, she would not have had to live away from her property for two years.
She said that it would have been simpler to do that than it was. It wouldn't have been as expensive for them.
FEMA doesn't fund permanent repairs or buy new homes for survivors of disasters.
Installation and removal of a mobile home costs FEMA an average of $232,800. A big chunk of that is for transportation and maintenance. The average price for a trailer at an R.V. park is more than $250,000.
According to Census Bureau data, a new single- family home in Lake Charles costs an average of $165,270.
There is a better way to help survivors, according to Brock Long, the former FEMA administrator.
Mr. Long said that if we gave the homeowner $60,000 to fix their house, what would happen? They can keep some equity if we fix the house.
The current FEMA administrator said in an interview that the agency should pay to repair homes, but needs permission from Congress. She stated that FEMA was working on legislation.
She said that they can do better.
The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development runs the Disaster Recovery grant program.
Disaster victims could be helped by FEMA and HUD. The emergency agency usually limits temporary housing for survivors to 18 months.
Pat Forbes, the Louisiana official responsible for overseeing that money, said HUD grants for new homes for Hurricane Laura survivors are expected this summer. He said it would take two years to rebuild the houses and four years to replace the rental housing that was destroyed.
FEMA told Hurricane Laura survivors to leave their trailers by the end of the month.
Mr. Forbes is the head of Louisiana's Office of Community Development. "It's crazy."
Congress didn't give HUD money for Hurricane Laura victims until more than a year after the storm. Rules for spending the money were written by the department. HUD didn't approve Louisiana's plan until this month.
The system doesn't work well, according to federal officials. HUD officials say they have worked to shorten the time it takes to award funds. Disaster Recovery grants should be made available for disasters of a certain scale and a permanent funding source should be created.
A proposal to make it easier for the department to spend money on disaster recovery has been opposed by the senior Republican on the committee that oversees HUD.
A spokesman for the White House defended the administration's work in Lake Charles. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been delivered to the community by the Biden administration. The pace of recovery can never be fast enough for families.
When Hurricane Laura hit, the slow pace of reconstruction money hurt people like Adeline, who lived in a rented duplex.
She ran away with her daughters to hotels in Dallas and Houston. After running out of money, one of the hotels let her work as a security guard in order to have a room for her and her daughters to sleep in. Jazzy was three years old and Allison was 20.
FEMA allowed Ms. Bertrand and her daughters to move into a trailer on a gravel lot after six months without a home. She wants to put her family in an apartment. Demand for remaining units jumped as the storm decimated the city's rental housing.
The old duplex Ms. Bertrand lived in cost $1,000 a month, but the new one is more expensive. FEMA has ordered Ms. Bertrand and her daughters to leave their trailer by October.
She cares for her mother in Lake Charles. She didn't want to leave her.
Ms. Bertrand is not the first person to have a situation like that. Gwendelyn Robicheaux shared a mobile home with her partner, Carrie Beauregard, and their three children.
FEMA gave a trailer to the family after eight months of living with relatives. There are three small bedrooms and a central space that is the kitchen, living room and dining room.
The cost of mobile homes in southwest Louisiana has gone up 50 percent since the storm, making it hard for people to replace their homes. The family doesn't earn enough to rent a home because Ms. Robicheaux and Ms. Beauregard receive disability payments
Ms. Robicheaux's family had until October to leave. She said that all of us would be homeless.
FEMA sells most of the mobile homes it no longer needs. Most are sold for between 10 and 15 percent of what it would cost FEMA to provide them.
People like Ms. Robicheaux can stay in their trailers for longer. The FEMA administrator said that wouldn't be in their best interests.
A set time frame helps people focus. We want to make it easier for people to get on their road.
Ms. Swope is one of the people who have left their FEMA trailer.
After her son's death, FEMA told her to either pay rent or leave the trailer. She moved back into the house because her Social Security check was so low.
Make up your mind. Are you going to help us or are you going to get all your trailers back?
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