Columns

By Stephen Waguespack

Halloween has come and gone…or has it? We are still surrounded by scary characters belting out bone-rattling sounds that send chills down every spine and fear through every heart. Safety seems impossible to find and danger still lurks behind every corner. Tantalizing free stuff is still being given away almost on demand and excessive consumption of all that loot leaves many of us feeling ill. The harrowing truth we all can agree on is that this creepy fog doesn’t have a chance of lifting until election day on November 8th.

by Stephen Waguespack 

In August, Louisiana experienced a flooding event of historic proportions. Estimates are that 109,000 housing units were damaged, 20,000 businesses were interrupted, and property damages totaled $8.7 billion. Two months after the event, Louisiana families and employers are at the beginning of a long and challenging road to recovery. This is especially true of small businesses across south Louisiana, the majority of which did not have comprehensive flood insurance, are not eligible for FEMA assistance, and whose only recourse is a federal Small Business Administration (SBA) loan between four and eight percent. More than 6,000 businesses flooded in 22 parishes and Congressional testimony has woefully noted that nearly half of businesses would likely never re-open after this disaster.

By Stephen Waguespack

By Stephen Waguespack

By Stephen Waguespack

By Stephen Waguespack

Sitting in an empty committee hearing room in the US Senate in Washington, it struck me. We really are on our own with flood recovery. Three small business representatives traveled to DC to deliver powerful personal testimony on the flooding event and the days that followed, yet only the two Louisiana senators were present to hear it. Every other chair remained empty. True, a few senators floated in and out to make a brief remark about their own concerns in their districts, but did not stay to hear the Louisiana experiences. The hearing was scarcely mentioned in national or local media.