President Barack Obama will visit Louisiana today to inspect recovery efforts that have begun in the wake of Hurricane Isaac

The President will land in New Orleans this afternoon, then inspect the damage left behind in the wake of heavy flooding in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate has been on the ground in Louisiana since before Isaac made landfall last week as a Category One hurricane. The slow-moving storm pushed water from the Gulf of Mexico inland on its east side and dumped flooding rains into the parish. Approximately 7,000 homes were flooded in and around LaPlace alone. Flooding was also reported in Reserve and other parts of the parish.

St. John the Baptist Parish was one of five parishes where residents were declared eligible for FEMA grants to cover housing assistance, home repairs, and damages to uninsured property. The other parishes included in the declaration are Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany parishes.

“We are extremely grateful with the prompt response of FEMA,” LDP Chairwoman Karen Carter Peterson said. “We are also thankful that President Obama has decided to come to Louisiana and see for himself the damage that Hurricane Isaac inflicted on our friends and neighbors.”

Chairwoman Peterson is in Charlotte, NC, to lead the Louisiana delegation at the Democratic National Convention. She, Senator Mary Landrieu and Congressman Cedric Richmond will serve as Honorary Co-chairs of a Hurricane Isaac Survivor/Recovery Benefit that will be held tonight (Monday) at the Louisiana delegation’s hotel in Charlotte.

Those attending the benefit will be asked to make contributions to several charitable organizations involved in post-Hurricane Isaac relief efforts. Those charities include the United Ways of the Gulf Coast Disaster Relief Fund, the American Red Cross, the GNO Fair Housing Action Center, and the Hurricane Isaac Revery Fund which was created by New Wine Baptist Church in LaPlace, which has served an operations and recovery center in the LaPlace area.

All proceeds from tonight’s benefit in Charlotte will be donated to those charities.

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Originally published: Sep 3, 2012