100 Days After Ida, South Louisiana Still Devastated & Wiped Out

Hurricane Ida, the highly destructive, Category 4 storm that roared across the southern part of Louisiana just four months ago, continues to cause great distress to thousands in that part of the state.

As many recall, Ida hit Louisiana on August 29of this year, making landfall near Port Fourchon. Meteorologists described the storm as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 150 mph, in the upper range of a storm in that classification.

From there, Ida then continued inland, bringing catastrophic winds, heavy rainfall, tornadoes, along with heavy flooding which included life-threatening storm surges along the coast. At one point, as many as 500,000 homes and businesses in the state were without electricity for an extended period. The hurricane was directly responsible for 28 deaths in the state and over 50 across the south.

In parts of Louisiana, the recovery has been especially slow. Despite the millions and millions of state and federal dollars pumped into the economy for reconstruction, a shortage of materials and workers has prevented a timely rebuilding for many.

In Chauvin, Louisiana, just southeast of Houma, for example, not only is rebuilding slow, but in many cases, not even underway. Many residents, faced with the enormity of the cost of rebuilding their homes or businesses, decided to move on, leaving many dilapidated structures abandoned. For many more, the money necessary to start over has been slow to arrive.

Sadly, this part of the state, like so many others - even four months after the storm - still has a long way to go.

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