The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is known for damming rivers and building levees to keep waterways at bay. But a new initiative seeks natural flood control solutions as climate change brings increasingly frequent and severe weather events that test the limits of concrete and steel.

Louisiana's lieutenant governor looked out at the storm-rattled landscape outside his Plaquemines Parish home. He counted how many neighbors plan to leave after Hurricane Ida struck the region two weeks ago.

"I've had seven of my neighbors call and say that's it, and they're not coming back," Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser told WDSU Sunday. "This looks like a war zone."

Tropical Storm Nicholas was moving up the Gulf Coast on Monday, threatening to bring heavy rain and floods to coastal areas of Texas, Mexico and storm-battered Louisiana.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Nicholas was strengthening, churning up top winds of 60 mph (95 kph). It was traveling north-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph) on a forecast track to pass near the South Texas coast later Monday, then move onshore along the coast of south or central Texas by Monday evening.

The White House on Tuesday issued a long-sought request for relief for southwest Louisiana more than a year after Hurricane Laura, providing hope that funding will soon arrive for faltering rebuilding efforts in a region devastated by four natural disasters and which has grown desperate in its pleas for help.

The announcement was greeted with cautious joy by the region’s political leaders who have spent months trying to draw attention to southwest Louisiana’s needs following not only Laura, but also Hurricane Delta six weeks later, an unusually harsh winter storm in February and flooding in May. While the request was long overdue for the region, it nonetheless marks major progress in their campaign.

Help is on the way for families affected by Hurricane Ida.

“When Hurricane Ida hit down in Louisiana, we wanted to help,” said Jenn Gillispie with First Fruit Farms.

Over two dozen Maryland farms came together to donate more than 100,000 pounds of food.

“Everybody in farming, we always been about helping people in need,” Joe Barten-Felder, who is the Secretary of Agriculture and farmer.

First Fruit Farms in Freeland helped organize the effort. It’s a non-profit that donates all its food grown at the farm for disaster and hunger relief.

Though lines at the pumps remain stubbornly long amid a pitiless heatwave, Louisiana is finally taking baby steps toward alleviating the ongoing fuel shortage that arrived with Hurricane Ida.

Some of the state’s 16 refineries have in recent days resumed distributing fuel after gaining at least limited power. The state has sent fuel tankers across the hard-hit southeast part of the state to make sure government generators, cop cars and fire trucks remain full. Meanwhile, power companies on Friday continued to slowly but steadily turn on the lights, alleviating some of the pressure on the gas supply from generators powering homes.

Damages to oil production facilities in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Sunday kept output largely halted a week after Hurricane Ida made landfall, according to offshore regulator the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE).

Energy companies have been coping with damaged platforms and onshore power outages and logistical issues, slowing efforts to restart production. Some 88% of crude oil output and 83% of natural gas production remained suspended. Climate change is fueling deadly and disastrous weather across the globe, including stronger and more damaging hurricanes.

About 1.6 million barrels of crude oil remained offline, with only about 100,000 barrels added since Saturday. Another 1.8 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas output also was shut in, the regulator said.