Insurances woes in coastal Louisiana make hurricane recovery difficult

Jonathan Foret of Houma, La., is still waiting on a contractor to fix his kitchen roof nearly a year after Hurricane Ida struck. (Debbie Elliott/NPR)

HOUMA, La. — The scars from last year's Hurricane Ida seem fresh – a strip mall grocery store is abandoned, its glass front knocked out; signposts and gas station awnings are ripped away; faded blue tarps cover buildings.

"The downtown area really took a beating," says Jonathan Foret, executive director of the South Louisiana Wetlands Discovery Center in Houma, a town of about 30,000 southwest of New Orleans. He points to boarded up historic storefronts and missing roofs.