RECOVERY PROJECTS - OVERVIEW

Federal and state planning efforts (guided by public input) culminate in plans to help devastated parishes recover from the storms, and to be better prepared for the next one.  During this process, local parishes identified their most pressing needs and issues, which in turn suggested goals and clarified a parish vision for recovery.  Specific projects were then developed to help reach the recovery goals.

The project lists will look very different from parish to parish, depending upon the most pressing needs in a given location.

Some parishes, particularly those located inland, deal more with indirect effects from evacuees than with direct damage from a storm. 

The Parish Recovery Planning Tool includes recovery projects developed by Louisiana parishes in their recovery planning process.  While many projects are important to the community, not all community-identified projects are included in the Parish RPT.  Some ideas are not specific to recovery. Others may need additional study.  Still, others may be included in other recovery efforts or programs—such as the FEMA Public Assistance program or the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers levee projects currently underway or planned.  Projects found in existing community planning activities such as comprehensive, mitigation or transportation planning, may also not be included in the Parish RPT.

Recovery projects included in the Parish RPT are ones that directly address needs resulting from the disaster and are additional to those already planned through other programs.  Higher recovery value projects are consistent with community recovery visioning and goals, focus on overall community recovery and can achieve multiple recovery benefits.  Recovery projects that are “catalytic” to recovery in that they “jump start” community recovery efforts or are necessary for other recovery projects to progress, are included.  Instead of a listing of capital improvement projects or those that only address pre-disaster conditions, recovery projects included in the Parish RPT provide an opportunity for a community to improve upon pre-disaster conditions and leverage recovery resources in a sustainable manner.  

The RPT is a dynamic instrument; as new community needs are identified the Parish RPT will be able to reflect those changing conditions.  Project modifications are still occurring.  Parish RPT enhancements and refinements are ongoing. 
Some projects are better than others at helping the parish recover and prepare better for future storms.  With the help of the Recovery Value Tool, planners can attach a relative value to each project based upon the degree to which it assists the community in its recovery from a disaster.

The purpose of the tool is to help communities pare down their lists of projects to focus their resources on those projects that will allow a quicker and more complete recovery in the shortest amount of time.