Last week, the parish held four National Disaster Recovery Framework stakeholders meetings at various locations around the parish. The premise of the informal public sessions was for the government to get public feedback on what residents and business owners—the stakeholders— really need from their government to recover from a disaster, as well as what obstacles they are currently faced with on going recovery efforts.

Each meeting had five substations equipped with large notepads for public feedback. The various substations included housing, human and social services, infrastructure, economics, and natural and cultural resources.

At the March 14 meeting in Braithwaite, one of the biggest reoccurring issues for residents was the need for federal levees, prevention of another Stolthaven-like chemical spill, as well as the new base flood elevation requirements.

“We’re looking for trends, we find out what issues are important to people and help them take ownership,” said Puckett.

“We want to quantify these issues and what we can turn into projects.”

The Parish was approached by FEMA to hold the meetings, and Puckett says he was happy to see the public come out and participate.