DEQUINCY — Before the storm, there had been a few times couples would pull up to Sandra Rosalis’ home, a wood-frame house with a spacious front porch surrounded by trees.
Would it be possible to rent out her garden for a day? They’d like to exchange their vows under the oaks and pines. One time, she says, she obliged.
But driving down the gravel road to her house in her daughter’s SUV right after Hurricane Laura hit southwest Louisiana on August 27, 2020, Sandra Rosalis knew she was looking at a total loss. A silver leaf maple tree in her front yard had been split in half. Her roof was torn off.
“I knew when I looked at it that it was unlivable,” Rosalis said. “It was just torn all to pieces.”
Since then, the 72-year-old has been living under temporary arrangements, first with friends and family members, later in a FEMA trailer on her property on the outskirts of DeQuincy, a small railway town surrounded by woods at the northern edge of Calcasieu Parish.
When Rosalis returned to her property shortly after Hurricane Laura hit, it was clear that her home was unlivable and likely damaged beyond repair.
Now, over two years after Laura tore through southwest Louisiana, Rosalis is one of the first homeowners to see their homes rebuilt or repaired through the Restore Louisiana program for Laura and Delta survivors.
The state initiative is being funded by a $1.05 billion federal aid package that took over a year and a half of relentless advocacy from local officials to secure. The money only began to arrive last week, more than two years after Laura, illustrating the slow and cumbersome process of obtaining federal long-term relief dollars.
“They’re a blessing,” Rosalis said of the program and its staff. “I still can’t believe it. I’m in shock.”
Across the region, construction crews are starting to get to work just days after Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the approval of a grant agreement releasing $600 million of the long-awaited federal aid for survivors of hurricanes Laura and Delta on September 29. An additional $450 million for homeowners affected by those storms, as well as funds for those hit by Hurricane Ida in 2021, is still to be released, pending a separate grant agreement.
Mike Lasher, a project manager at Dynamic Group, one of the state’s two contractors selected for home rebuilds and rehabilitations under the Restore project, is hoping the next few months will be busy as the program ramps up.
“Everybody that’s on our team is from Louisiana and either has lived or still lives in some of the impacted areas from both storms in this state,” Lasher said. “We’d like to see our neighbors get back to some type of normalcy.”
What was left of Rosalis’ three-bedroom home after the storm has been demolished, with a new four-bedroom house to be built in its place. Under the Restore program, contractors have nine months to complete rebuilds and six months to rehabilitate damaged homes.
“Once I get that home and I can move in, I can relax,” Rosalis said. “I don’t think I’ve been relaxed since the storm, to tell you the truth.”
Mike Lasher and his colleague have been on Rosalis property since Friday, September 30, tearing down the remaining structure and testing the soil for future construction.
Over the next few months, contractors paid through the grant program will be filing applications for demolition and construction permits, razing properties that are beyond repair and starting the design and construction process for new homes to be built. Owners of damaged homes will see repairs kicking off and those whose mobile homes were destroyed will receive funds to replace them.
Lasher’s company has been in communication with local governments in affected parishes for months to help them understand the framework of the program and lay the groundwork for a smooth and speedy permitting process.
“Our main goal is to get people home,” Lasher said. “The faster [the program] ramps up, the faster we can get people home and move on to the next homeowners.”
Containers hold what’s left of Rosalis’ home, which was damaged beyond repair by Hurricane Laura.
A week after the grant agreement was announced, 218 households had been offered grants and the state Office of Community Development was processing 1,213 applications for consideration for the first phases of the program, which focuses on low- to moderate-income households. In total, 1,536 had applied so far, which means their survey responses had been vetted for eligibility and considered likely to qualify.
“That’s a rolling number,” said Jeff Haley, the office’s chief operating officer. “Every day we’re approving new people.”
Within a few months, the department is hoping to expand its review to applications by homeowners in lower priority groups, like those with higher incomes or applicants seeking reimbursements for already completed repairs.
“This is all about prioritizing the most vulnerable storm survivors,” Haley said. “We, as much as anybody else, want to move that forward as quickly as we can. We just have to make sure that we have appropriately accommodated the vulnerable populations in the first three phases.”
Homeowners looking for in-person assistance in learning about the program’s eligibility standards, filling out the survey or submitting an application can visit a field office inside the Magnolia building in downtown Lake Charles.
Under the program, homeowners who qualify can select between two options for outstanding construction work: using the state’s contractors or finding their own.
The Fuller Center is one of the licensed contractors preparing to assist homeowners with their federally funded rebuilds and repairs. In the absence of federal funds, volunteer-based organizations and nonprofits like the Fuller Center Disaster Rebuilders have already rebuilt hundreds of homes in southwest Louisiana with the help of charitable donations.
Rosalis has been living in trailer provided by FEMA for over a year and a half. Now, she’s hoping the agency will allow her to extend her stay until her new home is finished.
The arrival of federal funds means that these groups can now use more of their financial resources to assist homeowners who don’t qualify for federal aid, while also rebuilding homes for those who do as part of the Restore program.
“It makes the available funding in the community go further,” said Fuller Center Operations Director Greta Willis.
And although many in southwest Louisiana have been frustrated with the delay in federal aid, Willis said the funds come at a crucial time, as volunteers and NGOs move on to the next crisis, like the destruction caused by Hurricane Ian in Florida.
“The availability of funds in southwest Louisiana for Laura/Delta recovery is decreasing,” Willis said. “Even though it’s been a long time, it’s good that they’re coming now, because this is kind of an advantageous time.”
For Rosalis, sitting in a lawn chair in the shade of an oak tree, the new home can’t come soon enough. Crammed in her FEMA trailer, she misses sitting on her porch, surrounded by the lush greenery.
“That’s where you’ll find me,” she said of the day her new house, complete with a front and back porch, is finally built. Right now, she said, “I just sit up at night and imagine it.”
