Terra Hillman replaces a propane tank on the camper trailer where she’s lived since Hurricane Laura damaged her Lake Charles house in 2020. (Chris Vinn for Louisiana Illuminator)
LAKE CHARLES — Sheriff’s deputies accompanied Federal Emergency Management Agency workers to Terra Hillman’s fenced-in property Jan. 29. They were there to remove the camper she’s lived in since Hurricane Laura plowed through her home in August 2020.
Hillman’s is one of three households in Calcasieu Parish who still need temporary shelter as they struggle to rebuild after the historic 2020 hurricane season. Their personal stories reveal gaps that remain in the disaster recovery process, even as the area sees a boom in multifamily housing construction.
FEMA set a Feb. 28 deadline to remove the remaining trailers from Calcasieu Parish, though the agency did not respond to questions about why it went to Hillman’s property a month early.
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When FEMA arrived at her property, Hillman entered her damaged house and would not speak with officials except to request they leave. About an hour later, they left without taking the temporary trailer.
Damage to Hillman’s home has made it difficult for her to repair. Her insurance company initially paid to repair her roof but denied the rest of her damage claims, including home leveling costs, which she said came to more than $300,000. But after her insurance company filed for bankruptcy, Hillman received no additional reimbursements. Court records show she’s suing the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association to recoup her losses.
“I’ve tried to re-tarp it [the roof] a few times myself because nobody else would do it because it’s dangerous …” Hillman said. “The weather around here just makes a joke of the tarps and stuff, and so the water just pours in half the house.”
Tarps cover the damage Hurricane Laura inflicted in 2020 upon Terra Hillman’s home in Lake Charles. (Chris Vinn for Louisiana Illuminator.
Reached last week, Hillman said she was still living in her trailer while repairs to her home continue. A freak winter ice storm in February 2021 damaged her plumbing, adding to the fixes needed.
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Hillman applied for help from Restore Louisiana, the program providing federal grants for homeowners affected by natural disasters in 2020-21. She was initially awarded $19,000 but appealed the award amount. She has since been approved for $325,000 to cover the full demolition and rebuild. However, she said the process has been slow.
Restore Louisiana program’s deadline for issuing grant award agreements was Nov. 1, 2024.
The Louisiana Office of Community Development, which oversees the program, has closed over 13,000 grant agreements, obligating more than $1.06 billion, spokesman Marvin McGraw told the Illuminator.
“Of the 20,803 submitted applications, 99.9% of grant award determinations have been completed, with only 12 homeowners awaiting a final award decision,” McGraw said.
The program expects to finalize any outstanding awards by March 31, he added.
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“At this stage, all homeowners have been notified of their program status, and any remaining delays are likely due to missing documentation or unmet program requirements,” McGraw said.
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Financial hardships hinder recovery
Before it was removed from her property, Diana Betters lived in a FEMA trailer in south Lake Charles, outside of city limits. She shared it with six other family members since her manufactured home sustained storm damage in 2020 that included busted pipes and a mold infestation visible around holes in the roof, walls and floors.
“I don’t know how much mold has built up. We’ve been buying the mold stuff and spraying and scrubbing,” Betters said.
Despite efforts to secure more permanent housing after the storms, she faced credit checks and financial hurdles, including a $650 sewer repair.
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Betters said she was awarded $75,000 from Restore Louisiana.
“I went and looked at the double-wide homes, and they want $149,000,” Betters said. “What I’m gonna do with it? Well, it’s a down payment, then the rest gonna fall on me. I already have a mortgage” for the damaged home.
Betters said she turned down housing options in nearby Sulphur and Iowa because she didn’t want her 11-year-old granddaughter to change schools. She considered two apartments near McNeese State University but didn’t qualify for a lease because of her low credit score.
According to documents Hillman and Betters received from FEMA and shared with the Illuminator, their trailer rents increased in January, with residents subjected to additional penalties should they continue to live in them beyond February.
Hillman said her $50 monthly rent increased to $200 in January, but she was unsure of what fees she would owe for continuing to live in her trailer past Feb. 28. Betters said her rent rose from $359 to more than $700 in 2024.
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Despite the Feb. 28 deadline, FEMA representatives showed up at Betters’ property Jan. 30 and ordered her family to vacate the trailer. As the family packed their belongings, contract workers started removing the trailer skirting to prepare it for removal. But just as they had at Hillman’s home, FEMA workers left the property without the trailer when reporters with the Illuminator and KPLC-TV arrived.
Betters told the Illuminator FEMA officials returned without warning the next day to remove the trailer. She and her family are now back to living in their hurricane-damaged home while they save for something new.
“We’re bunched up in here like sardines,” Betters said, explaining that she’s using some rooms in her damaged home for storage space.
FEMA would not answer specific questions about Betters or Hillman but said in an email that its Direct Housing Mission program ended Feb. 28. When a move-out is completed, FEMA said its campers are “not typically removed from the property on the same day.
Ceiling damage is visible in a section of Terra Hillman’s home in Lake Charles that Hurricane Laura damaged in 2020. (Chris Vinn for Louisiana Illuminator)
Nearly 20 years of disputes
Sulphur resident Ronnie Hossain has lived in FEMA trailers since 2005, when Hurricane Rita leveled the southwest corner of Louisiana. He has been involved in a lengthy dispute with local officials over rebuilding his storm-damaged home, and FEMA put his trailer on its removal list with the two others left over from the 2020 storms.
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Hossain said his FEMA trailer was scheduled for repossession for 9 a.m. Jan. 31. However, no one from FEMA arrived when the time came. He attributes the no-show to reporters who were present during previous removal attempts earlier that week.
Hossain claims FEMA wrongly accused him of violations in an attempt to force him out of his temporary housing and that local officials have been unhelpful, further complicating efforts to rebuild his home. He also said that FEMA cited him for failing to meet with a caseworker, but he alleges no caseworker has ever visited his property.
Hossain said he had been paying rent for the FEMA trailer, which recently increased from $225 to $475 per month. Now, he claims, FEMA is demanding $1,600 in rent, an amount he says is unreasonable.
Sulphur Mayor Mike Danahay said Hossain has been entangled in zoning and permitting issues since Hurricane Rita. He has violated city ordinances by having multiple structures on a lot zoned for one single-family dwelling, according to the mayor.
Hossain said the trailer he had been living in since Rita was damaged during Hurricane Laura in 2020. FEMA replaced it, and he removed the original one from his property six months ago.
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Hossain has yet to move into his house, and Danahay says he has repeatedly failed to meet deadlines for completing construction. The mayor said Hossain had electrical and plumbing work done without the necessary permits, which has prevented city inspectors from ensuring the home meets safety standards. Despite years of attempted cooperation, officials eventually had to start enforcing ordinances, Danahay said.
The mayor maintains the city’s goal is compliance, not punishment.
“I think we’ve been more than patient with this gentleman to get his house in order so he can move back in,” Danahay stated. “All we are asking him to do is complete the house and do it right to ensure safety.”
Hossein told the Illuminator he has permits to work on the house.
Hossain was locked out of his FEMA trailer Feb. 23, and it was removed from the property March 3, he said. Additionally, he claims FEMA sent a notice to the Internal Revenue Service to garnish more than $1,600 from his monthly income.
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He said has been in contact with Restore recently to renegotiate the terms of his grant to continue rebuilding his house.
Multifamily construction boom replacing damaged housing stock
Hurricanes Laura and Delta took dead aim at southwest Louisiana and damaged approximately 44,000 homes, according to a 2020 study. About half of the Calcasieu Parish housing stock was impacted.
More than 750 damaged homes in Lake Charles have either been repaired or rebuilt since 2020, city spokeswoman Katie Harrington said. Additionally, more than 900 new multi-family units have come online or are in the process of being developed.
Woodring Apartments in downtown Lake Charles just marked its grand opening and offers affordable rates for qualifying tenants. Construction is well underway at the 72-unit Calcasieu Heights and Capstone at the Oaks, with 120 apartments. Both properties are intended for senior housing.
Mid-City Lofts, a 46-unit mixed income development, is under construction on a portion of what was once the Lloyd Oaks Housing Development. What’s left of Lloyd Oaks is also being redeveloped.
A Pentecostal pastor in Louisiana charged with sexually molesting a teenage girl in his church has been convicted of indecent behavior with a juvenile – but was acquitted of the more serious crime of statutory rape.
Milton Otto Martin III, 58, faces up to seven years in prison and must register as a sex offender after a three-day trial in Chalmette, Louisiana, resulted in a guilty verdict against him on Thursday. His sentencing hearing is tentatively set for 15 January in the latest high-profile instance of religious abuse in the New Orleans area.
Authorities who investigated Martin, the pastor of Chalmette’s First Pentecostal Church, spoke with several alleged molestation victims of his. But the jury in his case heard from just two of them, and the charges on which he was tried pertained to only one.
That victim’s attorneys – John Denenea, Richard Trahant and Soren Gisleson – lauded their client for testifying against Martin even as members of the institution’s congregation showed up in large numbers to support him throughout the trial.
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“That was the most courageous thing I’ve ever seen a young woman do,” the lawyers remarked in a statement, with Denenea saying it was the first time in his career he and a client of his needed deputies to escort them out the courthouse. “She not only made sure he was accountable for his crimes – she has also protected many other young women from this convicted predator.”
Neither Martin’s attorney, Jeff Hufft, nor his church immediately responded to requests for comment.
The documents containing Martin’s criminal charges alleged that he committed felony carnal knowledge, Louisiana’s formal name for statutory rape, by engaging in oral sex with Denenea’s client when she was 16 in about 2011. The indecent behavior was inflicted on her when she was between the ages of 15 and 17, the charging documents maintained.
A civil lawsuit filed against Martin in parallel detailed how he would allegedly bring the victim – one of his congregants – out on four-wheeler rides and sexually abuse her during breaks that they took during the excursions.
The accuser, now about 30, reported Martin to Louisiana state police before he was arrested in March 2023. Other accusers subsequently came forward with similar allegations dating back further. Martin made bail, pleaded not guilty and underwent trial beginning on Tuesday in front of state court judge Darren Roy.
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Denenea said he believed his client’s testimony on Wednesday was pivotal in Martin’s conviction, which was obtained by prosecutors Barry Milligan and Erica Moore of the Louisiana attorney general’s office, according to the agency.
As Denenea put it, it seemed to him Martin’s acquittal stemmed from uncertainty over whether the accuser initially reported being 16 at the time of the alleged carnal knowledge.
State attorney general Liz Murrill said in a statement that it was “great work” my Milligan and Moore “getting justice for this victim”.
“We will never stop fighting to protect the children of Louisiana,” Murrill said.
Martin was remanded without bail to the custody of the local sheriff’s office to await sentencing after the verdict.
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The lawsuit that Denenea’s client filed against Martin was stayed while the criminal case was unresolved. It can now proceed, with the plaintiff accusing the First Pentecostal church of doing nothing to investigate earlier sexual abuse claims against Martin.
The plaintiff also accused the Worldwide Pentecostal Fellowships to which the Chalmette church belonged of failing to properly supervise Martin around children, and her lawsuit demands damages from both institutions.
Martin’s prosecution is unrelated to the clergy molestation scandal that drove the Roman Catholic archdiocese of nearby New Orleans into federal bankruptcy court in 2020 – but the two cases do share a few links.
State police detective Scott Rodrigue investigated Martin after also pursuing the retired New Orleans Catholic priest Lawrence Hecker, a serial child molester who had been shielded by his church superiors for decades. Rodrigue’s investigation led to Hecker’s arrest, conviction and life sentence for child rape – shortly before his death in December 2024.
Furthermore, Denenea, Trahant and Gisleson were also the civil attorneys for the victim in Hecker’s criminal case.
Newlab New Orleans is deepening its energy-tech ambitions with a new partnership alongside JERA, Japan’s largest power generator, to accelerate next-generation carbon capture solutions for heavy industries across Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, The Center Square writes.
The collaboration brings JERA Ventures into Newlab’s public-private innovation hub, where startups gain access to lab space and high-end machinery to commercialize technologies aimed at cutting emissions and improving industrial efficiency.
The move builds momentum as Newlab prepares to open its fifth global hub next fall at the former Naval Support Activity site, adding New Orleans to a network that includes Riyadh and Detroit. JERA’s footprint in Louisiana is already growing—from a joint venture on CF Industries’ planned $4 billion low-carbon ammonia plant to investments in solar generation and Haynesville shale assets—positioning the company as a significant player in the state’s clean-energy transition.
Federal immigration authorities are keeping a tight lid on key details as “Catahoula Crunch” closes its first week in southeast Louisiana, Verite writes.
The operation—one of Department of Homeland Security’s largest recent urban crackdowns—began with raids at home-improvement stores and aims for 5,000 arrests, according to plans previously reviewed by the Associated Press. While DHS publicly highlighted arrests of immigrants with violent criminal records, AP data shows fewer than one-third of the 38 detainees in the first two days had prior convictions.
Meanwhile, advocacy groups report widespread fear in Hispanic communities, with residents avoiding hospitals, schools, workplaces and even grocery stores amid sightings of federal agents.
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Business impacts are already visible: restaurants and Hispanic-serving corridors like Broad Street appear unusually quiet, with staff shortages forcing menu cuts and temporary closures. School absenteeism has doubled in Jefferson Parish, and protests have spread across New Orleans and surrounding suburbs as local leaders demand transparency around federal tactics.
