Volunteers with faith-based humanitarian organizations are aiding victims of Hurricane Ida as they recover from the Category 4 storm that struck in Louisiana over the weekend and caused widespread damage and over 1 million people to lose power.
Since Saturday, nearly two dozen volunteers and staff from Convoy of Hope, a faith-based natural disaster relief organization, loaded 19 emergency-response tractor-trailers on the ground in Shreveport with supplies to respond in the first hours after Ida made landfall.
When the storm subsided, 23 volunteers and staff from the organization began the response by providing food, water, hygiene items, chainsaws, cleaning items, shovels, rakes and other supplies to many residents in need.
Ida struck Louisiana with 150 mile-per-hour winds early on Sunday, 16 years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the state and Mississippi.
The storm winds destroyed homes, infrastructure and multiple buildings. Many houses have been flooded.
Nearly all of southeast Louisiana and areas in New Orleans have lost electricity and will remain without power for days to come.
Ethan Forhetz of Convoy of Hope said, “It’s heartbreaking. … When you are part of Convoy of Hope efforts, oftentimes, you see people on the worst day of their lives, in a helpless and hopeless state.”