Michelle and I are thinking of everyone affected by Hurricane Ida, and we're grateful to the first responders doing heroic work. Here are some ways to support those in need: https://t.co/YZU1xlRN1i
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) August 31, 2021
Please add your own suggestions in the comments!
Hurricane Ida flooded homes across Louisiana and destroyed the region’s power grid. Now those communities face another challenge: the potential of weeks without power in the heat.@AP photos document the damage, and the people left in the storm’s wake. https://t.co/0CN9bHgJoo
— The Associated Press (@AP) August 31, 2021
Cynthia Lee Sheng: Officials began assessment down in Grand Isle. Says island is uninhabitable, 40% of structures are completely destroyed. No means of communication there
— Jade Cunningham (@Cunningham_JL) September 1, 2021
In the wake of Hurricane Ida, one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast, residents in southern Louisiana could be without power for a month https://t.co/RcJqNHG9UX pic.twitter.com/bmKFnRljiY
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 1, 2021
Southeast Louisiana residents desperate for food, power, water and help in Ida’s aftermath https://t.co/Sq2rdzv9eN
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 1, 2021
… Two days after Ida came ashore in Louisiana, hundreds of thousands of people remained without power. With temperatures in the 80s and the heat index projected to make it feel like more than 100 degrees for the next several days, officials were concerned that heat-related illnesses could lead to more deaths across the state. There were reports that power would not be restored to some communities for 30 days…
It wasn’t only the heat and humidity and lack of power that had officials worried Tuesday. Water and sewage systems in several parishes were severely damaged during the storm. The state had set up more than 30 shelters to take evacuees without access to basic infrastructure. Edwards said his greatest concern was how long hospitals, which were already full of coronavirus patients before Ida, could operate effectively on generator power.
In the devastated community of Raceland, in Lafourche Parish, residents in the Bayou Country community were struggling to live in homes with ruined roofs, broken windows and leaky ceilings. Houses and trailers were destroyed, flipped off their foundations, or shredded by Ida’s intense winds.
But residents said the most heartbreaking impact of the storm hasn’t been the damage to their homes. It is living without electricity and running water. They wondered on Tuesday who, if anyone, would be coming to help.
Many residents, who sat outside on streets cluttered with debris and sought relief from the stifling heat, said they were looking for food and fuel. Without access to cellphones or televisions, they worried that all the help was “going to New Orleans,” as one woman put it…