HOUMA, La. — In your Breakdown: federal help is here for those recovering from Hurricane Francine.
FEMA and the State of Louisiana have set up a Disaster Recovery Center in Houma at the Terrebonne Parish Library on Library Drive and another is open in Morgan City.
The centers have representatives from FEMA and the Small Business Administration on hand for in-person help.
Ascension, Assumption, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. James, St. John, St. Mary, and Terrebonne Parishes now qualify for FEMA disaster assistance. You can apply for ‘serious needs assistance’ which is a one-time 750-dollar payout to help with essential needs, or ‘displacement assistance’ if you can’t go home because of the disaster.
There’s help with food, too. If you lost groceries due to a power outage, Disaster SNAP has been approved for the same eight parishes, and the applications for help begin Wednesday based on your last name.
Call-in to 1-888-LAHELPU on the assigned day:
- Day 1 (Wednesday, Sept. 25): Last names A-G
- Day 2 (Thursday, Sept. 26): Last names H-M
- Day 3 (Friday, Sept. 27): Last names N-Z
- Day 4 (Monday, Sept. 30): Open to all
- Day 5 (Tuesday, Oct. 1): Open to all
There are also in-person places to apply, and the DSNAP website has a calculator to estimate what you might be paid out based on your income, accounts, and other benefits.
Louisianans in Assumption, Lafourche, St. Mary, and Terrebonne Parishes who already receive SNAP benefits will automatically get 40 percent of their September benefits refilled if they were issued before Francine made landfall.
If you aren’t in one of these parishes, but your power was out for 24 hours or more… you can fill out a Snap 38 form to apply for replacement funds.
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