By Beckie Strum
The extent of damage from the historic flooding in Louisiana a week ago continues to grow, with parishes and local authorities reporting 60,642 homes damaged or destroyed, officials said Sunday.
Around 102,000 survivors have registered to receive federal aid, including help with home repairs and cleanup work, since what many are calling the Great Flood of 2016 submerged whole neighborhoods and left at least 13 people dead.
The number of people living in shelters has slowly decreased and was roughly 3,000 people as of Saturday night, though there are many more displaced living in hotels and with relatives, said Mike Steele, spokesman for the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.
Recent images show areas in the hardest-hit areas south and east of Baton Rouge, such as Livingston and Ascension parishes, where buildings are still surrounded in pools of standing water. Some are calling this the worst U.S. natural disaster since 2012’s superstorm Sandy.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/louisiana-flooding-called-worst-us-disaster-since-superstorm-sandy-in-2012-2016-08-21