Hurricane Laura survivors: apply for disaster aid

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - Days after Hurricane Laura demolished homes and businesses in the Lake Charles area, residents are recovering.

Last week, President Donald Trump announced a Major Disaster Declaration for Louisiana. As a result, “Federal disaster assistance has been made available to the state of Louisiana to supplement state, tribal and local recovery efforts in the areas affected by Hurricane Laura from Aug. 22 to Aug. 27, 2020,” according to FEMA.

Federal funding is available to families impacted by Hurricane Laura that live in Allen, Beauregard, Calcasieu, Cameron, and Jefferson Davis parishes.

“Assistance can include grants for temporary housing and home repairs, low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover from the effects of the disaster.”

Individuals and business owners impacted by Hurricane Laura can apply by registering online at www.DisasterAssistance.gov or by calling 1-800-621- 3362 or 1-800-462-7585 TTY.

For families in need of food assistance, the Department of Family & Children’s Services offers a Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or DSNAP is for eligible families with low to moderate-income.

Families must register through the CAFE customer portal to receive DSNAP benefits when they become available. Registration does not guarantee benefits.

According to DFCS, “Even households who have registered for DSNAP before must register again. Doing so now also provides everyone an opportunity to ensure the household’s listed family members and contact information are up-to-date.” This is due to technology upgrades.

Current SNAP recipients do not need to register for DSNAP, according to DFCS, “If SNAP clients are eligible for additional benefits in the event of a disaster, those benefits would be loaded onto their EBT cards automatically or the SNAP recipients would have to submit a form through a different process than the DSNAP.”

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