BRAC: nearly one third of homes in Baton Rouge area received flooding

BATON ROUGE – In a preliminary analysis released Friday, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber reports that nearly one third of all homes in the Baton Rouge area received flood damage from this week’s historic flooding.

BRAC released a preliminary analysis of the flood’s impact Friday. The organization used geographic data that outlined areas that were identified as affected by the flood within nine parishes. BRAC also used data from the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

BRAC said those sources allowed them to identify housing and business data for the affected areas and quantify the homes and businesses that were at risk throughout the nine parish region.

The BRAC report says the flood impact area covers more than 1,000 square miles, including parts of Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberville, Livingston, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, West Baton Rouge, and Fest Feliciana parishes.

The report states that 31 percent of homes within that 9 parish region identified as receiving some type of flooding. More than 110,000 homes are located in the flooded areas. According to BRAC, 66 percent of the homes were owner-occupied, 22 percent were renters, and nine percent were vacant.

More than 280,000 residents in the Baton Rouge area identified as receiving flooding.

“As a region, a maximum of 15% of all homes, not solely in the flood-impacted areas, were insured against flooding,” the report states.

More than 7,300 businesses employing 73,907 employees are located in areas identified as flood affected. Those businesses represent 21 percent of the businesses in the overall Capital Region, employing 18 percent of the areas employees.

The BRAC report says that Livingston Parish businesses were hit the hardest by the flooding. More than 3,300 businesses that employ 27,653 employees are identified in the flood impact area. Those stats equal 91 percent of businesses and 94 percent of employees in the parish.

In Livingston Parish alone, 125,113 residents were in the flood affected areas. Nearly 49,000 housing units (86.8 percent) experienced flooding. Only 12,210 homes (21.7 percent) in the entire parish were covered by flood insurance.

In East Baton Rouge Parish, 2,055 businesses employing 22,298 employees were identified in the flood impacted areas, representing 9.1 percent of businesses and 7.7 percent employees.

BRAC reports that other parishes with high percentage of affected businesses include Ascension, East Feliciana, and St. Helena parishes.

The hardest hit industries were retail, construction, healthcare, manufacturing and food services.

READ THE FULL BRAC REPORT HERE