By Christopher Flavelle, Photo: Edmund D. Fountain, The New York Times, July 25, 2022
Two summers ago, Hurricane Laura wrecked Betty Swope’s modest bungalow at the edge of Lake Charles, a city surrounded by oil refineries in southwest Louisiana. The Federal Emergency Management Agency helped at first, paying for Ms. Swope and her son Adrian to stay in hotels, then putting a trailer in their yard and providing about $7,000 toward fixing their house.
But that covered a fraction of what repairs would cost Ms. Swope, who is 74 and, like many storm survivors, lacked insurance. And though Congress approved extra funds for victims of Hurricane Laura, that money has yet to reach Louisiana almost two years after the disaster.
While Ms. Swope sought money to rebuild, her son, paralyzed decades earlier in a diving accident, increasingly struggled. Adrian’s room was too small to maneuver in his wheelchair, so he was confined to his bed. Over time, both his spirit and his body deteriorated.
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