BATON ROUGE, La. – Heavy trucks and their works crews have begun hauling away mounds of moldy carpet, warped flooring and water-damaged furniture as south Louisiana digs out from flooding the governor estimated Tuesday had wrecked more than 100,000 homes.
Piles of debris stretched for miles in some parishes, with the inside of homes torn up and deposited on their front lawns, the mildewed stench wafting through neighborhood streets.
"It's going to take months, if not over a year, to get the debris up," said Jr. Shelton, the mayor of Central, a suburb of Baton Rouge that is one of the hardest-hit communities from the catastrophic flooding.
Of Central's 27,000 residents, Shelton said 25,000 of them were affected by the flooding. He said 90 percent of the homes had major damage, including many that are total losses. Shelton described entire subdivisions as "decimated."
"I don't mean a few inches of water in their house. I mean 2 feet of water or more. Most were 4 or 5 or 6 feet of water. When you get above the counters, you've lost everything. What's absolutely heart-wrenching to me as a mayor is to see my citizens' lives laying on those streets in front of their houses," he said.
President Barack Obama visited the region Tuesday, pledging to the state's residents: "You're not alone on this." His visit drew praise for drawing national attention to the disaster, but also criticism from some quarters that it was too long in coming.
A storm that started Aug. 12 dumped as much as 24 inches of rain in two days over areas, blamed for at least 13 deaths and widespread damage that displaced thousands from their homes. About 2,500 people remained in shelters after flooding that has been described as the worst disaster since Superstorm Sandy in 2012.
Gov. John Bel Edwards estimated the flooding has ravaged "well over 100,000 homes" across south Louisiana, as he asked Obama for additional federal aid and a reduction in the state's share of response costs.
In a letter he presented to Obama outlining a list of disaster assistance requests, the governor described the people of Louisiana as "strong and resilient." But he added that the severity of the flood "is testing our spirit in ways we have not seen since the challenges posed by Hurricane Katrina" in 2005.
As contractors continue to scoop up the water-logged debris left behind by the storm, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said more than 110,000 people have applied for federal aid and more than $107 million has been approved in grants so far. The money is paying for temporary rental assistance, home repairs and other disaster relief.
Many people with damage from the flooding didn't have flood insurance, making recovery more difficult. In many instances, residents say such coverage wasn't required because they didn't live in a designated flood zone.
ZACHARY, La. — For Linda Fernandez, this summer has been one long disaster tour. In July, her daughter died in Baton Rouge, while her infant great-granddaughter mysteriously ailed in Houston. It was at a hospital there, a week and a half ago, where Ms. Fernandez learned she had lost her home, too, to flooding.
She explained this to President Obama on Tuesday afternoon as he walked through that house, emptied of all the furniture except for what was too heavy to haul outside. He hugged her four times and they had their picture taken.
Others may have debated the timing of Mr. Obama’s visit and whether he was too late in coming to this flood-wrecked state, but Ms. Fernandez wiped tears from her eyes and said she had not been following any of that.
“Really I don’t have time to think when I go home — I mean, go to my place in the corner,” said Ms. Fernandez, who turned 69 on Saturday and is staying at a friend’s house. “I’ve been busy. I haven’t watched the news. I’ve been doing all this by myself.”
Nearly 11 years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Mr. Obama came to meet with flood victims in a visit that required him to navigate a delicate mix of compassion and politics.
The president landed in Baton Rouge to see the devastation left by floodingin the last week, and to demonstrate, in part by his presence, that the federal government will deliver help to those who lost everything.
Standing amid rubble in front of flooded homes, he lamented that so many people’s lives were “upended” by the floodwaters that swept through communities with devastating force. But he praised the disaster relief response and expressed optimism that the people of Baton Rouge would recover and thrive.
“I know how resilient the people of Louisiana are and I know you will rebuild again,” Mr. Obama, dressed in a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, said after touring several homes. He pledged that the federal government would support the victims of the community for the long run. “These are some good people down here,” he said. “They got a lot of work to do and they shouldn’t have to do it alone.”
Local and state officials from both political parties have praised the federal response in Baton Rouge, drawing a sharp contrast with the much-criticized delays by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Katrina.
Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser, a Republican who frequently criticizes Mr. Obama, said in an interview that federal officials had done “an excellent job” responding to the floods. “They actually do care,” he said.
But Mr. Obama arrived four days after Donald J. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, visited flood-ravaged areas around Baton Rouge. In a Twitter message on Tuesday, Mr. Trump mocked the president for failing to cut short his Martha’s Vineyard vacation last week. “Too little, too late!” he wrote.
Some Republicans and distraught locals have also criticized the president for waiting more than a week to visit the tens of thousands of residents affected by the floods. More than 7,000 people were forced into 37 shelters across a vast stretch of the state by the rainfall, which has been blamed for 13 deaths.
The Advocate, a local newspaper, mocked the president in an editorial last week. And on Tuesday, Representative Charles Boustany, a Louisiana Republican, added, “It’s a shame it took the president so long to come to Louisiana, but we are glad he is here.”
Frustration over the president’s absence, merging with a widespread sense that the disaster has been unjustly overshadowed in media coverage of the Summer Olympics and the presidential election, has ranged from the hot anger of The Advocate editorial to a more subdued disappointment.
Some here said the president had been callously detached for vacationing during a catastrophe, while others said he was respectfully keeping his distance during rescue efforts. But for those most intensely affected, the political debate is a luxury they can hardly afford.
“I didn’t even know he was here,” said Nita Case, 75, sitting wearily on a folded camp chair inside her gutted home, 11 miles from the neighborhood Mr. Obama had just visited.
Florence Lucas, 79, had lost everything in Hurricane Betsy in 1965, lost her home during Hurricane Katrina and then had her home flooded this summer. She stood in the kitchen as a contractor discussed the rebuilding timeline, a needlepoint Home Sweet Home sign still hanging above the door to the hallway.
“Politics should be out of this,” Ms. Lucas said, adding that an earlier visit by the president would have just complicated the work of local responders and the police. “What can he do? He can’t come and get rid of the water.”
The president praised W. Craig Fugate, the FEMA administrator, for overhauling the agency to make it work better, and he announced that the federal government had already distributed $127 million in aid to the flooded communities. Still, Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, issued a statement after meeting with the president saying that he had formally requested additional help for his state.
Mr. Edwards, who had urged the president not to visit the state when the rescue operation was in full swing, said the federal government so far has been “responsive to all of our requests.”
Mr. Obama was in Baton Rouge for about three hours before heading back to Washington. White House officials said the president also planned to meet briefly with the family of Alton B. Sterling, the African-American who was shot while being held on the ground by Baton Rouge police officers, as well as families of officers killed and injured in an ambush in July.
In the long run, the success of Mr. Obama’s visit will be judged in two different contexts: first, the political imagery that has become a vital part of White House planning since President George W. Bush was photographed gazing down on New Orleans from Air Force One, and second, the gritty reality on the ground for people struggling to rebuild.
As a candidate in 2008, Mr. Obama was eager to focus on the politics of Mr. Bush’s flyover, denouncing him during a rally for being “a president who only saw the people from the window of an airplane instead of down here on the ground, trying to provide comfort and aid.”
Now the spotlight has shifted to Mr. Obama’s actions.
After touring the damage, Mr. Obama pledged continued help “even after the TV cameras leave” and waved aside questions about politics. “I guarantee you,” he said, “nobody on this block, none of those first responders, nobody gives a hoot whether you’re Democrat or Republican.”
He could have been referring to Nita Case’s husband, Dennis, 78. A fan of Bill O’Reilly, the conservative talk show host, he had few good words for the government, saying, it “ain’t never done enough.” But he also said he had paid little attention to the politics surrounding Mr. Obama’s visit on Tuesday.
“I haven’t watched the news for two weeks,” he said. “I’ve been busy.”
