Acadiana · St. Mary Parish
St. Mary Parish FORTIFIED Roofs and the Fortify Homes Grant
St. Mary Parish runs the length of Bayou Teche, from sugar country down to salt water. Franklin, the parish seat, is a Teche town with a National Register historic district and old lampposts down Main Street, and U.S. 90 carries you east from there past Patterson to Berwick and Morgan City, which face each other across the Atchafalaya River where it meets the Intracoastal Waterway. Below the highway the parish keeps going, out past Cypremort Point and Point Chevreuil into open bay.
Why a FORTIFIED roof matters in St. Mary Parish
St. Mary is two economies on one storm track. Up the Teche it is cane and small towns, and down at Morgan City it is boats, docks, and the yards that service the offshore fields, and a hurricane crossing the parish hits both on the same night. What it hits them with is wind. Surge belongs to the bottom of the parish and to the levees built for it, but the wind field covers the whole parish, and it does not weaken between Point Chevreuil and Franklin. The roof is the piece a homeowner controls. Ring-shank nails through a re-nailed deck, the deck sealed under the covering, the edges detailed, and a wind rating on what goes over it, so the house is still closed when the water goes down.
Hurricane Andrew (1992) made its Louisiana landfall on the St. Mary Parish coast at Point Chevreuil, about 20 nautical miles west-southwest of Morgan City, as a Category 3.
Communities in St. Mary Parish
Franklin, the parish seat, sits on Bayou Teche in the upper half of the parish, with Baldwin west of it on the same bayou toward the Iberia line. U.S. 90 strings the rest of it together going east: Patterson next, then Berwick at the water, then Morgan City on the far bank of the Atchafalaya. Morgan City is the largest of the four and the one that faces the working water, sitting where the river, the Intracoastal Waterway, and the highway all cross in the same place. South of that line the parish thins out into marsh and bay, and almost nobody lives down there.
- Franklin (parish seat)
- Morgan City
- Patterson
- Berwick
- Baldwin
Everything on this page applies across the parish. For the other parishes, see FORTIFIED roofs by Louisiana parish.
Is St. Mary Parish eligible
St. Mary Parish is among the parishes the Louisiana Department of Insurance lists as eligible for the Fortify Homes grant, as of August 5, 2026. Eligibility is confirmed at the address level, and the list changes every round, so the official map is the only word on whether your specific home qualifies right now. Check your address on the live LDI Fortify Homes map, and apply through the state at ldi.la.gov/fortifyhomes, not on this site.
How the grant works for a St. Mary Parish home
The Fortify Homes grant reimburses the cost of rebuilding your roof to the IBHS FORTIFIED standard, up to $10,000 per home. It is a cap on a reimbursement, not a flat check, and the money is paid to your contractor after IBHS issues the certificate. You gather bids from at least 3 approved contractors you choose, and once you are cleared the work must be finished within 90 days.
Do not start roof work before you are selected and the bid process is complete.
Approved contractors may not begin until you have the official notice that you are cleared to proceed. Starting early voids your eligibility, grant and all. Wait for the notice before anyone in Franklin or anywhere else touches the roof.
For the full walkthrough, see the Fortify Homes grant guide and what the standard requires in the FORTIFIED Roof guide.
What a St. Mary homeowner gets back
The roof is the start, not the end. A FORTIFIED designation earns a required cut on the wind portion of your home insurance in Louisiana, year after year, for as long as the designation stays in force. If you pay for the roof yourself, the same certificate still earns that discount and the state tax incentives apply too.
See how the mandated discount works in the insurance savings guide, and the state credit in the FORTIFIED roof tax credit guide.
By Louisiana Fortified HomesUpdated
See what a FORTIFIED roof is worth in St. Mary Parish.
Get connected with a FORTIFIED-certified contractor near Franklin. No cost, no obligation.