BATON ROUGE - It once played host to Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Tom Cruise and many others but Wednesday, Stage 6 at Celtic Media Centre was the set of a reality series too many are living: life in a rebuilding, post-flood world.

FEMA opened a Disaster Recovery Center inside the 30,000 square foot sound stage. Floors once covered in wires above a ceiling of stage lights was filled with cubicles of federal disaster experts, helping people through the process of applying for and receiving disaster assistance. The office at the movie studio is one of twenty opened by FEMA along the I-10, I-12 corridor and even as far south as New Iberia following the August flood.

Previously, Stage 6 hosted productions of Battleship, Oblivion, Fantastic Four and a production of MTV's Scream. However, managers of the largest film and television production studio in the state aren't new to the turnaround from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood to the important task of opening up and providing assistance. The stage housed Red Cross volunteers after Hurricane Isaac and was the first shelter location for evacuees at the production lot following the flood.

The disaster office is open in Stage 6 everyday from 8 a.m. To 6 p.m.

************************

Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmaltz