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BATON ROUGE — Gov. John Bel Edwards on Friday requested a federal disaster declaration from President Joseph Biden for five parishes affected by the flash flooding in mid-May in Louisiana, but people who suffered damage in any parish should continue self-reporting it online at damage.la.gov.

Gov. Edwards’ request is for FEMA Individual Assistance for five parishes – Ascension, Calcasieu, East Baton Rouge, Iberville and Lafayette. Individual Assistance includes aid from FEMA related to housing and other needs. However, if additional parishes have identified damage, the Governor’s request will be amended to request these parishes.

The Governor also requested Small Business Administration assistance and Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding statewide. The Governor declared a state of emergency for this disaster on May 17, 2021.

So far, over 2,700 homes have reported damage from the severe weather, including 6 that were reported as destroyed, 703 suffering major damage and 1,174 homes having minor damage. Louisiana continues to collect reports from the public via a self-reporting process at damage.la.gov.  Everyone with weather related damages is encouraged to take the survey.