Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Hurricane Laura Victims Have Few Good Options for Housing

Matt Haines

   NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - More than a week after Category 4 Hurricane
   Laura ripped through the southwestern corner of Louisiana, state
   officials report more than 230,000 residents remain without power
   Friday. Another 175,000 are without water.

   "People around the country don't realize how bad it is here," Michelle
   Lee of Lake Charles, Louisiana, told VOA. "Entergy says we won't have
   power for four or five weeks. Some people say they don't think it'll be
   until November."

   Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday that power has been restored for
   nearly 400,000 people, but that the remaining outages would likely be
   the hardest ones to fix. The reason for this, he said, was that
   thousands of miles of electrical wires, thousands of utility poles and
   many hundreds of transmission towers were damaged by the storm.

   Lake Charles officials said this is a main reason residents have been
   unable to return to the city of 80,000, which was hit early August 27
   with winds of more than 240 kph -- the most powerful hurricane to reach
   Louisiana since 1856.

   "Why come back right now if you don't have to?" Lee said. "I have
   friends who are in hotel rooms in New Orleans and Texas, and why not? A
   hot shower is a lot better than what we've got here. There are people
   in Lake Charles living in homes with a tree through the roof and with
   no water or power. I know people who are sleeping in cots on their
   porch or in tents in their backyard."

   Edwards estimated that more than 11,000 people are being sheltered by
   the state, some in large emergency shelters, but the majority in hotel
   rooms in cities around Louisiana.

   Lee said she tried to find a place for herself and her two dogs but
   didn't have any luck.

   "At first I was told I could find a place to stay in Baton Rouge, so I
   drove there, but then they said, 'No, go to Metairie.' So I drove to
   Metairie and they said, 'No, go to Alexandria.' It was a mess," Lee
   said.

   The lucky one

   After driving more than 800 miles during the evacuation, Lee was afraid
   her old car might die, stranding her and her dogs. She was also worried
   about missing work at an auto repair shop if she couldn't return to
   Lake Charles.

   "I don't have a lot of great options," she said. "I didn't want to go
   into one of the big shelters, because I didn't think it was safe with
   COVID. Even if I managed to find an open hotel room, as far as I can
   tell, the emergency vouchers are gone, and that would be a lot of money
   for me to pay out of pocket."

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