Mission Hurricane Ida

We slept in Lafayette, it was mostly calm. The rain and winds were not due for another day or so. We were on a mission to report on Hurricane Ida which was headed toward New Orleans. I checked the weather and the radar said it was supposed to hit Lafayette as well which is about 150 miles west of New Orleans. The weather was reported to be a category 4 when it reached landfall. Another Katrina, the weathermen were saying, like back in 2004 where it destroyed the city with flooding.

We reached Baton Rouge the next early morning. The Mississippi River runs right through that capital city. We first gathered around the capitol building. There was a veterans memorial to the east of the about 20 story building that served as the offices for heads of state. There is a Veterans Memorial in Lake Charles as well, before we got to Baton Rouge and Lafayette. It shows that Louisiana really loves it’s veterans. The land around the capital building was built of sidewalks and manicured lawn.

We talked to police, media and citizens of different cities. The police in Baton Rouge told us about Southern University where evacuees would be staying and ran by the Red Cross. We entered there as volunteers and counseled persons and asked, “Where are they coming from?” and what are their challenges. The winds that night were stronger than normal and there was rain in Baton Rouge.

The next morning when we were leaving we noticed tree branches had fallen down. We had to pull a branch from under the car when we stopped to ask for directions. But no one was open. So we just decided to take the main road and we found the Interstate 110 which we were looking for. By this time my phone seemed to be not charging due to water in the charging port so there was no GPS. I think it was the humidity that caused the water in the charging port.

We started our way, early morning, before sunrise to New Orleans via I-10 East. There were a lot of trees that had fallen on the highway and the crews were already chopping them and throwing them by the roadside. We saw a convoy of Louisiana State Patrol going by. We said, “that must beg the Governor,” and we understood why they were cutting up the side of the road first. Before we entered New Orleans there was a town exit that was flooded and the water was on the road. We drove through the water as it was not that deep.

When we entered New Orleans we noticed all of the traffic lights were out and hotels were out of electricity. A hotel owner was quoted as saying, “It’s bad.” We received directions to downtown. On Poydras and Main by the Mayor’s office there were two buildings made of brick. One building had a mural on it and most of the bricks fell down leaving only the painting of the heads showing. The other building looked as if it had been hit by a wrecking ball. It was just completely destroyed. These buildings were not taller than two stories in this little section of downtown. There were a lot of media in this area from a French outlet to local media. The meeting with the governor was at 11:30 to 12:30, approximately. Our team attended that meeting.

The gas station that we saw that was run by a generator and the actual store was closed was crowded with people going every which way. Some people were holding in front of gas pumps and selling the gas for a profit. People were filling up lots of gas cans each and generators. It was a little chaotic. While we were there someone hit someone’s car as they were pulling out of the gas station.

The power outages, the economic impact, ptsd that people suffer or the worry and anxiety, the closed roads, the displacement of people, the downed power lines causing outages through several parishes and cities is due to the impact of the increase of hurricane activity which is the effects of climate change. Hurricane Harvey caused it to rain three full days in Houston and it covered that place with water. Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Sandy were part of this massive evidence of climate change as well as the wildfires in Australia and California.