Hurricane Ida made landfall as a Category Four hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 150 mph near Port Fourchon, LA midday on Sunday, August 29th.
Tri-State Area
Following the historic rains and flooding brought by Hurricane Ida this week in the Tri-State Area, Americares is reaching out to our partner network of emergency response coordination bodies, local health centers and other social service agencies with offers of emergency aid, medicines and medical supplies. Americares has ongoing partnerships with 33 organizations in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut, including our own Americares Free Clinics in CT.
Louisiana
Southeast Louisiana continues to struggle with the after-effects of the hurricane—power outages, fuel shortages and phone/internet connectivity issues. These challenges are exacerbating the response efforts - complicating damage assessment and response planning and execution. Further, extreme temperatures are presenting additional health risks. While just over 2,000 people are in emergency shelters, there are thought to be many more displaced individuals residing with friends and family. There is a dire need for basic food, water and hygiene items.
• Americares currently has two emergency response teams on the ground in Louisiana and Mississippi assessing the damage to the local health system. As partner health centers slowly come back online (as communications are restored), we expect to receive significant requests for medicine, medical supplies, and operational support to continue—and where needed, restore—health services.
• Our key priority is to support local health centers in the affected areas to be fully operational and able to support their patients. The team has offered assistance to more than 70 organizations, and is prepared to deliver emergency shipments of medicine, PPE, hygiene products and relief supplies to protect survivors in the hardest-hit communities.
• To date, Americares has provided the following support:
o Providing support to an organization which has more than 14,000 patients in New Orleans and Houma. With less than 30 hours of generator fuel remaining, they reached out to Americares. We are providing them with the resources to cover the cost of fuel and remain open and continue to be a key COVID-19 testing and vaccination site.
o Providing support to an organization to help them safely relocate their New Orleans residents—homeless youth and their young children.
o Providing support to an organization to get rural health centers back on cell and web service.
o Shipped hygiene kits to a partner for distribution to affected families.
*Should Americares raise funds in excess of what's needed to respond to this particular crisis, the funds will be redirected to where the need is greatest.
