BATON ROUGE - All throughout South Louisiana, crews are hard at work cleaning up after Hurricane Ida. In Washington, politicians are working on a plan for federal assistance. 

"I think it's really important, and I impressed this on President Biden when I met with him, we've got to immediately come forward with some clear investments to the resilience of this area. We're gonna invest more in flood protection, invest more in restoring our coast, invest more in levees and resilient infrastructure," Congressman Garret Graves said.

Graves is calling on FEMA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reassess hard-hit areas for eligibility of assistance from the Blue Roof Program. The program installs blue tarps for people who have roof damage after a natural disaster until they can schedule a permanent repair. 

With the current assessment, Assumption, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Iberia, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, St. Helena, St. Martin, St. Mary, Washington, West Baton Rouge and West Feliciana do not qualify. 

"We're disturbed by that because there are a lot of homes in East Baton Rouge Parish and some of the adjacent parishes that have substantial damages to their roofs and so we've asked the corp of engineers to come back and reevaluate that and we do believe that ultimately that these parishes will be deemed eligible," Graves said.

While waiting for a reassessment, people are taking it upon themselves to remove debris from their homes. FEMA announced Monday that they will reimburse generators up to $800 and chainsaws up to $250 if they were purchased prior to September 25. 

"As you know, we're a big do-it-yourself community in south Louisiana and so it helps to empower those people to help them help themselves."

Congressman Graves encourages those who apply for federal assistance to take pictures of the damage to their homes and keep the receipts of chainsaws and generators bought for the hurricane. 

Click here for information on the FEMA Individuals and Households Program. 

Click here for the Federal Disaster Assistance website.