Acadiana · St. Landry Parish
St. Landry Parish FORTIFIED Roofs and Insurance Discounts
St. Landry Parish is the northern end of Acadiana, and it used to be far bigger than it is. Calcasieu, Acadia, and Evangeline were all carved out of St. Landry, and Calcasieu was later divided again into Cameron, Allen, Beauregard, and Jefferson Davis, so a good stretch of southwest Louisiana once answered to the courthouse in Opelousas. What is left still covers plenty of ground. Open farm country runs west from Opelousas toward Eunice, and at the other end of the parish the land simply quits at the Atchafalaya, where swamp and river take over. Bayou Teche starts here too, leaving Bayou Courtableau at Port Barre and heading south into the rest of Acadiana.
Why a FORTIFIED roof matters in St. Landry Parish
Being this far inland changes what a hurricane is, and not in the way most people assume. The surge is long gone by the time a storm reaches St. Landry. What arrives instead is duration, a whole night of gusting and rain rather than a few violent hours, and duration is what takes an old roof apart. Wind works at an edge, gets under a course of shingles, lifts the next one, and it has until morning to keep going. There is not much standing in its way here either. Prairie on the west side of the parish and open swamp on the east give a storm a clean run at every roof between them, and the live oaks and water oaks shading the older streets in Opelousas turn a strong gust into a limb on somebody's rafters. A FORTIFIED roof is built for the long version of the storm. The deck is re-nailed with ring-shank nails and sealed, so a lost covering does not become a lost ceiling, and the edges where wind starts its work are detailed rather than left at the code minimum.
Hurricane Gustav (2008) crossed Louisiana on an inland track, and St. Landry was one of the parishes the federal major disaster declaration that followed opened to individual assistance.
Communities in St. Landry Parish
Opelousas is the parish seat and sits in the middle of everything, where Interstate 49 running north and south crosses U.S. 190 running east and west. Follow 190 west and it carries you across the prairie to Eunice, which straddles the Acadia Parish line at the far edge of St. Landry and keeps its city hall on this side of it. Sunset is south of Opelousas on the interstate, on the way down to Lafayette. Port Barre sits east on 190 at the head of Bayou Teche. Krotz Springs is east again from there, at the end of the dry ground, where the highway crosses the Atchafalaya River and the parish stops.
- Opelousas (parish seat)
- Eunice
- Sunset
- Port Barre
- Krotz Springs
Some of those places have a page of their own: FORTIFIED roofs in Opelousas.
Everything on this page applies across the parish. For the other parishes, see FORTIFIED roofs by Louisiana parish.
A FORTIFIED roof still pays off in St. Landry Parish
The grant is not the only reason to build to the standard. A FORTIFIED roof earns a required cut on the wind portion of your home insurance in Louisiana, and that discount applies regardless of the grant, anywhere in the state. The Louisiana FORTIFIED roof tax credit works the same way: it is available to homeowners who retrofit to the standard whether or not they ever touch the grant program.
See how the mandated discount works in the insurance savings guide, and the state credit in the FORTIFIED roof tax credit guide. For what the standard actually requires, see the FORTIFIED Roof guide.
Is the Fortify Homes grant available in St. Landry Parish
St. Landry Parish is not currently in the Louisiana Fortify Homes grant area, so the up-to-$10,000 grant is not available here. The eligible-parish list changes every round, so it is worth checking the official map from time to time in case the parish is added later. Check the live LDI Fortify Homes map for the current grant area.
By Louisiana Fortified HomesUpdated
See what a FORTIFIED roof is worth in St. Landry Parish.
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