Just a PS. The county or municipality should be the ones issuing permits. They might need to make sure certain criteria set by other authorities having jurisdiction are met but the overall permits for rebuilding and clearing away debris should come from them.
PSs. Be sure to contact SBA about aid available from them.
It’s been a while since Katrina but the way it used to work was you registered with FEMA, but the loan money was from the SBA. Fema passed out $1000 grants, but if you took the SBA loan, they’d roll it into the loan amount so you had to pay it back.
I do recall that while the Katrina victims had up to a year to get their acts together, the California mudslide victims only had 4 months to get it done.
Finally, as a footnote, SBA ODA in Fort Worth is hiring for the night shift. So the phone lines should be open about 20 hours a day.