Tagged: recovery

New Orleans officials have broken ground for a new $3.6 million fire station designed to serve an area not protected by levees.

The city says the new Alba Road Fire Station in the Venetian Isles area will replace a smaller facility that was 30 years old when it flooded during Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The station is being built with aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Construction began with Wednesday's groundbreaking ceremony and is to be completed this fall.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded East Baton Rouge Parish a $1.5 million grant to help city-parish government with costs associated with Hurricane Isaac.

The Advocate reports the grant, part of FEMA's Public Assistance program, will help reimburse the city-parish for equipment and supplies used during the response to Isaac and the recovery effort.

The grant covers the federal share — 75 percent — of the parish's eligible costs and the state or parish will pay the remaining 25 percent.

Businesses and individuals who claim BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico cost them money have been paid more than $1 billion through the company's class-action settlement with private plaintiffs' attorneys.

Court-supervised claims administrator Patrick Juneau says payments hit the $1 billion mark before the end of 2012. He also said 95 percent of claimants who were offered payments decided to accept them.

Juneau touted the acceptance rate as evidence the settlement and claims process are fair.