PLANNING PROCESS FOR LOUISIANA
LONG-TERM COMMUNITY RECOVERY

This Parish Recovery Planning Tool offers a look at how Long-Term Community Recovery (LTCR) planning works and how it has been developed in Louisiana. Included in this section are overviews of recovery strategies development, a summary of planning tools — some of which have been developed in Louisiana in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and a look at Louisiana public and community input into LTCR planning.

Louisiana has embarked upon the most ambitious recovery planning efforts the country has seen. Widespread damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and multiple levee failures in New Orleans resulted in the worst natural disasters in U.S. history. More than 20 parishes are affected displacing over 1.4 million Louisiana residents across 50 states, many of whom have yet to return. More than 1,000 lives were lost; 217,000 homes and 18,000 businesses were damaged. Today, Louisiana faces the challenge of rebuilding one of the country’s most historic cities, a host of treasured communities across southern Louisiana, and an economic and housing infrastructure that in some parishes has been totally wiped out. The return of small businesses, governmental facilities and services are critical to Louisiana’s recovery. The restoration of acres of damaged or destroyed agricultural crops and fields as well as environmentally fragile waterways and wetlands that protect the Louisiana coast add to the recovery challenge facing the state. Ports, oil and gas drilling sites and shipping lanes that support energy and transportation needs for the country need to be restored as well.