Entergy is proud to support programing on LPB and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred B. and Ruth B. Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting with support from viewers like you.

The aid never comes quickly enough.

A government watchdog tracks the work of FEMA.

It's not just the costs involved.

You don't have the right amount of insurance, but it's also the emotional impact it has on people.

The do's and don'ts of homeowners insurance.

If we can intervene early on, then we can prevent burnout solutions for health care workers struggling with PTSD.

We're able to get the information really root their need to the proper people to get them the aid that they need.

How a text hotline became a lifeline in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

Hi, everyone.

I'm Kara St. Cyr.

And I'm Andre Moreau.

Tonight, one hundred and ninety five thousand customers are still without power in Louisiana.

Almost two weeks after Cat four, Hurricane Ida inflicted so much destruction.

Entergy says power is on now for at least 83 percent of New Orleans.

But it's 100 percent off.

In Grand Isle, in lower Jefferson, also terrible, Lafourche and St. Charles Parishes.

They expect to remain in the dark for several more weeks.

This has health officials worried.

Dr. Joseph Kantor with the Louisiana Department of Health says that the storm evacuation put people at greater risk of contracting Covid while staying with family and friends in shelters and hotels.

The US Department of Health and Human Services did report that Louisiana Covid cases dropped 50 percent in the last two weeks.

We're also down 29 percent in hospitalizations and 25 percent in deaths.

LDH also reported that more people are vaccinated.

About two million people have gotten both shots, which is about 42 percent of our population.

It's a slight bump of momentum, but we will need to roll up many more sleeves.

In short, we're going in the right direction, and that's encouraging.

But the level of Covid out there remains exorbitantly high.

There remains a lot of risk right now, although we are encouraged that it does appear that we peaked in this dangerous fourth surge connected to Delta.

And our numbers are now going in the right direction.

And now a look at other headlines making news across our state.

The death toll in Louisiana from Hurricane Ida now stands at 26 lives lost.

State health officials this week reported 11 more who died in New Orleans.

Nine of those 11 who passed away were elderly and perished from the heat.

Well over a million Louisiana customers lost power during IDA, and that misery continues for more than 250000 customers.

Many of those who live in Homa La Ploce, Grand Isle, Golden Meadow and Galiano and up and down Bayou Country suffered catastrophic damage and recovery will likely be measured in years.

Of those towns and cities, Houma is the largest with a population of more than 33000.

Officials say either destroyed downtown Houma and left no structure untouched.

State health officials permanently revoked licenses for seven nursing homes owned by a real estate magnate, Bob Dean of Baton Rouge.

This after he evacuated 800 nursing residents to a warehouse in tangible HOA parish.

Seven patients died and about 50 were hospitalized after being crowded and conditions considered inhumane.

Family members whose loved ones went through the ordeal are calling for criminal charges.

And the attorney general has launched an investigation.

Idas, far reaching damage, has forced the state to reschedule fall elections.

They've been pushed back five weeks.

So instead of October 9th, November 13th is the new date.

If a runoff is needed, that will take place December 11th.

LSU is home for the first time this season, and fans will have to prove their vaccine status for entry.

When the Tigers host MCNIECE.

But that's not the hot topic around Tiger Town.

Instead, it's Coach and O'Gara.

Twitter blew up with outrage.

Tiger fans following the upset loss to UCLA.

Coach O's exchange with a UCLA fan before the game also went viral.

And for all the wrong reasons.

Hey, hey, great.

Yes.

All right.

Yes, all of your sissy blue shirt.

LSU leaders from the president for the Office of Diversity gave no comment.

And UCLA use the slur to create a T-shirt enterprize.

Also today, they discussed it for two hours, then the LSU Board of Supervisors voted in favor of naming the basketball court in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center after legendary LSU coach Dale Brown.

Brown coached the Tigers from 1972 to 1997, taking LSU to 14 consecutive NCAA are in EITE appearances.

He won four SEC regular season titles and took the Tigers to two Final Fours in the SEC.

His four hundred and forty eight victories is second only to Kentucky's Adolph Rupp.

You will see the Browns signature on the court this season when the basketball team starts play.

Name the government agency that you think of first after a disaster like a hurricane.

Well, it's FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

And for people in our state, what we really remember is their response after Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago, which went so badly, it was so roundly criticized and haunts people to this day.

Well, we've had more hurricanes in the past couple of years, and we wonder what the job FEMA is doing right now.

So we turn to John Moler, executive director of the Louisiana Budget Project.

You're here because you actually watch and study the work that they do and other government agencies to see if they're serving the people.

So what are you learning so far?

Well, first of all, the aid never comes quickly enough.

And when you're in a disaster and we also know that in Louisiana, about half the households in our state just don't have the resources to weather even a short term financial emergency, let alone the long term emergency that happens when something like Hurricane Ida strikes.

Yeah.

The good news is that, you know, after a federal disaster is declared like the president did before, right after IDA, that triggers a lot of federal aid.

So people are eligible for short term emergency assistance.

A lot of people are getting that.

If you signed up, you're eligible.

They cover some hotel stays.

There's also aid like disaster unemployment assistance for people who lost their jobs due to the hurricane.

There are disaster snap assistance, food assistance for people.

The rules around food assistance get relaxed so you can apply with the Department of Children and Family Services.

So there is a lot of short term aid available to people.

We know that some people fall through the cracks for whatever reasons, but the aid is getting to people.

I think the real question now is now that the immediate response is starting to calm down.

What do we do from here?

Because a lot of families in Louisiana are going to need help, not just in the short term, but really for the long term as they try to rebuild their lives.

And it was with the southeastern part of the state getting walloped by IDA.

It reminds you of Laurer a year ago, the southwestern part of the state, and much of the assistance they've expected has not come their way yet.

That's exactly right.

We are now more than a year past Hurricane Laura, and Congress still has not passed a disaster relief package.

The hope is that there is there's a bill that the federal government has to pass.

Congress needs to pass a bill by the end of this month to keep the federal government running.

The President Biden has requested twenty four billion dollars in disaster assistance be included in that bill.

That would include money for Hurricane Laura and southwest Louisiana, money the state has been asking for for almost a year now.

Plus, money for Hurricane Ida.

This is money that the state would get in the short term to to really help the families that have been meeting again in Lake Charles.

I was just there last weekend.

You still see a lot of blue roofs.

You see a lot of places that look like the hurricane just hit yesterday.

People need those resources.

Hopefully that will be included.

You know, again, Congress works best when they have a deadline.

So we're hoping that this gets done by the end of the month.

And there's Covid money.

There are some other moneys that could come the way and sort of help in some of these areas, and we certainly hope so.

Anything else just to put a wrap on it?

Well, again, I think you touched on Covid relief.

The federal government sent Louisiana more than three billion dollars for Covid relief.

A lot of that money is still unspent.

There's about a billion and a half dollars.

The legislature hasn't spent yet.

Hopefully, the legislature will look at ways that they can maybe reallocate some of that.

And then there's also going to be an infrastructure package that Congress is looking at.

There's money in there to fortify the electric grid and really make us more resilient.

So the next time this happens, maybe it won't be quite as maybe rebuild it a little differently.

So there is a quicker recovery if there has to be one in that type of thing to begin with.

It's it's it's awful.

Yes.

You can call this number one 800 six two one, three, three, six two.

That's for assistance.

And also disaster assistance.

Dot gov.

Those will get you to the right people if you haven't contacted them yet.

Again, John Miller, thanks so much.

Thank you.

Now we have a hurricane story of help from the West Bank of New Orleans in Algiers.

Two friends with a big heart for their community had already created a Web site that provided services for their area.

But it was the creation of a hotline number.

Days before either changed our lives.

That has been huge.

At the Arthur Munday Senior Center in Algiers, volunteers with Algiers Proud are working in the confused aftermath of Hurricane Ida to try and restore some order to the disrupted lives of thousands.

Charles Landry from Algiers is one of them.

I'm here to get some food, some ice.

The source doesn't have anything.

We've been trying to do to get to different stores around town.

There's nothing.

I walked in, grouses this morning with a basket, and by the time I got to the meat count, I turned around, left the basket and walked out and came back because there was nothing there was nothing in there.

Right.

It's always a shock, though, when you see that, huh?

But right here, people are being taken care of.

Cars line up.

Food goes out in a little over a week.

They've served more than 10000 miles from the spot.

I think like going to happen.

You know, I had an opportunity to leave and that's not my nature.

I wanted to be here to give back to my community.

And so when Kristin Pomer, along with Nola Reddy and Algiers crowd put this, you know, life saving mission together, I just had to be a part of it.

Stephanie Bridges has been a community activist for decades and instilled that spirit in her son, Jordan.

He's a candidate for state representative, and it's he and his campaign manager, David Jones, a second who co-founded Algiers Proud and The Hotline.

Text?

No, we broadcasted the number the day of the hurricane, lost power for a day ourselves.

And when we came back up, we were flooded with about 15000 requests all through text message from people all across southern Louisiana.

The number went viral on social media, and we were able to start routing that to mutual aid groups across the country that are putting money directly into the hands of people.

So that is an example, right.

Of what decentralized community can be like.

We can put the right tools in the hands of the community to do the good that they seek.

We've been encouraging people to text the hotline.

We're able to get the information really root there need to the proper people to get them the aid that they need.

And what we mean by decentralized is everyone's a leader, just like you saw with the volunteers here that came some people came to the lines and were served and turned out to be leaders on the ground and helping us serve thousands of meals in ice and water and tarps.

We ran into a volunteer that came through the line and he brought us industrial batteries from the film industry.

And we were able to take that to seniors homes and get their ventilators, go in and get their their devices charged, a very under voice community, as we've seen recently.

And so all of this is an effort of the community here and really just trying to serve the state at large.

One of the things that we really think about here in terms of innovation is not necessarily taking new things right and building them from scratch.

But what can we use right now to achieve the purpose that we have for the community?

Spinning up the final four to a five four eight one five hot line for algae is proud is nothing new.

People have done these things over and over again.

But in a situation like Hurricane Ida, where connectivity between power lines going down and connectivity between cell phone and Internet providers being very spotty, we find that text messages were actually the best way for people to communicate their pleas for help and relief.

Right.

That's why we were inundated with tens of thousands of messages when the lights came back on.

And we were super shocked at first.

But now we understand that, wow, we've actually identified something that we can build upon.

You can't you have people in Baltimore, if they wanted to be answering these calls and helping people through it.

Yes.

And that's a big part of volunteering, right.

You don't have to be on the ground.

Our infrastructure was completely hit.

We had no power.

We had a lot of people didn't have running water.

A lot of people didn't have.

But they had their phones and their devices.

I've been born and raised in Algiers.

The idea of being Algiers proud is recognizing ourselves with the second oldest community in New Orleans.

And that's an extremely long heritage, dating all the way back to the slavery times and with the with the community stood for just a staging ground.

But all the way to now, my dream is to make my community a beacon of progress, because we have progressed so so far, where over 300 years old.

And that legacy of coming together in the people that have come from that, we're very proud back here of that legacy.

Thanks, guys, and you will find the number to text on the alger's proud website.

That number is five oh four to eight five four eight one five.

Trauma is not just a feeling, it's one of the worst manifestations of stress and anxiety.

Health care workers have been experiencing the symptoms of PTSD and moral injury for decades.

But the pandemic is escalating their prevalence.

Dr. Gigi Dunn, a doctor with years of experience in operating rooms, says that treating the overworked and overwhelmed health care providers requires changes deep within the culture of the medical industry.

Starting with how hospitals and staff acknowledge their pain, the human brain is built to withstand life's hardest challenges.

Fear, stress, nervousness.

Your body can handle it.

But trauma can leave a mark when you're a health care provider and you see images like these every day.

Your brain could change when you're under this immense amount of pressure where you have overwhelming stress, overwhelming anxiety that's chronic in nature, then it burns out your capacity to be responsive, thoughtful and actually to be your best self.

And then as a result, you start separating yourself.

You're not as enthusiastic.

You pull away and you feel like there's no purpose in your life.

And of course, as we have seen in innumerable occasions, we have health care workers, physicians who end up committing suicide because they feel they're failures.

They have the sense of moral injury because they just can't take it.

Doctors and nurses on the front lines of Covid are silently battling with PTSD, stemming from something experts call moral injury.

Injury basically occurs when you do something that is against your moral code.

So, for example, if you know, you have to keep ventilating a patient, even though you know that this is, you know, increases suffering and the likelihood of surviving is basically nil because the family's not ready to let go or because, you know, there's not a process in place to really have enough communication to do what you have to do.

So that I hear from a lot of health care workers.

It's very difficult for them.

Health care professionals that were already stressed and burned out before any of the pandemic started, there was already an epidemic of suicide, of health care professionals, people leaving the bedside, people leaving the profession.

And there were lots of struggles about what to do about that.

Then on top of that, here comes Covid.

And they rose to the occasion, as health professionals do, because that's what we're taught.

They got through the worst part of Covid.

They got through all of the different things that we know about.

They thought they had that in the rearview mirror.

And now suddenly it's back with a vengeance.

Seeing so many patients die in such a short time frame is traumatizing to a lot of providers.

And that's dangerous for several reasons.

Not only does trauma trigger physical responses, but it also shuts down parts of your brain that make rational decisions.

Health care professionals are very resilient.

We're taught to be profoundly resilient.

But sometimes that resilience can actually get us in trouble, because it means that if we're not aware of the trauma and the moral injury that we're feeling, and if we don't work through that, then at the end of all of this, if we just keep going and we don't change things, we don't work through what has happened before, we can absolutely end up with physical and emotional illness.

Dr. Doti says that acknowledging trauma is crucial for healing.

It's the first step to change.

The second step is what we know is to give people the opportunity to relax and decompress.

And that can be simply having a room that's, you know, stocked with adequate.

Supplies, if you will, and chairs where you can just sit, relax for 10 or 15 minutes and maybe even have nice music and have a quiet to allow you to recover and recharge.

The other is to have outlets where people can express their frustration or their feelings with empathic individuals who can give reassurance, can offer them different techniques to practice.

Dr. Gigi Dunn, a doctor with years of experience, says destigmatizing PTSD and trauma will help doctors cope with it.

But also taking time for reflection is important.

We really need programing to help them with trauma, PTSD, how to live a healthier day and why self care is so important in terms of care for others .

To Dr. Dunn, selfcare means being compassionate with yourself, connecting with people you have close relationships with.

And finally, stress reduction tools like walking outside, dancing, singing and even prayer without implementing hospital programs that cover these topics.

Dr. Dunn says we're headed for more burnout and possibly more suicides.

If we can intervene early on, then we can prevent burnout.

We can support PTSD.

We can support and give tools for moral injury.

We can help people stay engaged with what connected them to medicine to begin with.

We can keep nurses at the bedside.

But the point of all of this is we've got to intervene early and we've got to intervene now.

It's one of those circumstances where you can't wait till all of this is over.

And then we start to do programing.

We can do broader and deeper programing men.

But at this point, we need to start getting things into our health care professionals.

Exactly at this time.

Dr.

Dawn says there is no quick fix for trauma, but acknowledging it and learning to cope with it is the first step in the healing process.

For the second year in a row, Louisiana is recovering from another hurricane.

For some, repairing their homes or cars after a storm is routine.

But for others, this could be the first time they've seen their property severely damaged.

Loretta Waters with the Insurance Information Institute outlines exactly how you can file a homeowner's claim and what you need to look for.

No one could have predicted a storm like Hurricane Ida at a Category four.

She was one of the strongest storms to hit Louisiana's coast.

She left behind devastation for a state still recovering from Hurricane Lauren 2020.

But for others, this could be the first time they've been hit by weather so severe.

And according to Loretta Waters with the Insurance Information Institute, it could also be the first time they're dealing with major damage to their homes.

Water says knowing how to file a claim and knowing what's covered is essential to recovery.

Typically, your homeowner's insurance covers for many perils.

You know, if there's lightning, a tornado which can often happen after a hurricane, any kind of windstorm is covered under your homeowner's policy.

There's a couple different types of coverage you might need for a hurricane.

Flood coverage is one of them, but very few people actually have it.

Even in a flood prone state like Louisiana, the Nexstar commercial property, natural disaster and homeowner's insurance.

But for each, you need proof of damage.

If the first thing you need to do when filing a claim for anything else is make sure you're safe.

Family say, you know, you want to make temporary repairs, but you don't want to endanger yourself at all.

So you want to make the repairs and then get receipts ready.

Take pictures, videos.

Everybody has cell phones today.

So that's a great way of capturing any damage that's been done.

Gather all of the evidence you can send the claim well before you do that.

Make sure you actually need your insurer's help, assess the damage and ask yourself if you think it will cost the same or close to your deductible.

If it does, then maybe consider fixing the property on your own.

But if not, go ahead and file your claim and wait for an adjuster from the insurance company to take a look at your property.

Despite what some people think, bringing on an adjuster doesn't always increase your rates as when you file the claim with your adjuster.

There may be some, you know, depending on the damage that you've experienced.

If you are unable to live in your house, you will get a check cut from your insurance adjuster fairly quickly so that you can have additional living expense.

Also known as loss of use, so that you can get to a hotel or get some food, you know, just the necessities that you need to carry on with what you normally would do.

If you have homeowner's insurance, hurricane damage may get you a little over 2000 dollars for repairs.

If you have flood insurance on top of that, you're looking at another six hundred dollars on average.

But it all comes down to your specific plan.

If you don't have any insurance, water says you still have options.

You can obtain often low interest, no interest loans from the federal government.

But the Small Business Administration has some loans and grants that are available.

So people should take advantage of that.

The problem comes when if it is flood insurance, you don't have flood insurance either from the private market or from the National Flood Insurance Program.

If you don't have that, then there's some potential for large losses for an individual.

But if you still need more help getting your home back to normal, FEMA can help you out.

The process is similar to filing a homeowner's claim.

First, you need the pictures and other evidence of damage.

You need receipts from any expenses you needed while your home was being repaired.

If you have insurance, you'll also need proof that you filed a claim.

FEMA can't legally help you with anything your insurance already covers, but they may be able to step in to cover claims your insurance policy denied.

Water says even if the process is tedious, it's more beneficial to have insurance not just for your home, but for your well-being.

You know, it's it's it's not just the cost that's involved.

You don't have the right amount of insurance, but it's also the emotional impact it has on people.

And it is quite significant because you're you know, it's it's your personal items, it's photographs.

It's all these things that you need to do to protect yourself.

Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Their events planned throughout Louisiana, but Lake Charles is home to our state's 9/11 memorial.

Yet Lake Charles acquired two steel beams from the wreckage of the World Trade Center and one slab of Pentagon limestone.

The serene memorial was on North Lakeshore Drive in downtown Lake Charles.

Well, everyone, one that is our show for this week.

Remember, you can watch anything LPB any time, wherever you are with our LPB app.

You can catch LPB News and public affairs shows, as well as other Louisiana program.

You've come to enjoy over the years.

And please like us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for everyone.

Louisiana Public Broadcasting.

I'm Andre Malraux.

And I'm sincere.

Until next time.

That's the state where.

Entergy is proud to support programing on LP and greener practices that preserve Louisiana.

The goal of our environmental and sustainability initiatives really is to ensure that our kids and future generations can be left with a cleaner planet.

Additional support provided by the Fred B. and Ruth B. Ziegler Foundation and the Ziegler Art Museum located in Jennings City Hall.

The museum focuses on emerging Louisiana artists and is an historical and cultural center for Southwest Louisiana.

And the Foundation for Excellence in Louisiana Public Broadcasting with support from viewers like you.