Thirty days ago today, our parish was struck with Hurricane Ida’s fury as she rolled ashore at Port Fourchon. Ida was the largest hurricane most in our parish had ever faced in their lifetimes. The message of “Say a prayer, hug your kids, and God bless Lafourche,” rang throughout the community as we braced ourselves for what we knew was unchartered territory.
“Lafourche Parish is a community of strength, hope, and faith. We stick together no matter how tough it gets,” said President Chaisson. “I have never been prouder of my colleagues that fought for the funding over the past twenty years to secure the fate of our citizens and communities with levee protection. Every single penny that was spent to build our coastal safety systems saved our way of life for future generations,” said President Chaisson.
Following Ida, we’ve seen our parish come together in more ways than we could have ever imagined. “We always take care of ourselves, but the way we rallied to help each other in the face of our own devastation was truly heartwarming,” said President Chaisson. “I especially want to thank all the non-profit organizations that went to work on day one: Catholic Charities, Bless Your Heart, the Bayou Community Foundation, and everyone else who brought supplies, cooked, and cleaned for our residents,” expressed President Chaisson.
There is still a long road to recovery. As debris clean up continues, we are facing the daunting tasks of cleaning our homes, and in some cases, gutting our homes. Debris contractors will likely be in Lafourche Parish for the next couple of months as we get the estimated million cubic yards of debris off the ground. To put this into perspective, Lafourche Parish only had about 150,000 cubic yards for Hurricane Zeta last year and 500,000 cubic yards for Katrina. Entergy continues to make progress with getting the lights back on and we expect most people to have power by their September 29th published restoration date. FEMA has set up multiple Disaster Recovery Centers to meet with residents such as our Mathews Government Complex location and at the Geaux Pass Office in Golden Meadow. More FEMA personnel come in every day, and we are working to canvass the parish door to door to make it easier for people to communicate and receive the help they need.
“In our wildest imaginations, we as a parish, would have never dreamed of facing a global pandemic, record numbers of storms, and now the largest storm in our lifetime within a two-year period, but we weathered the storms together, head on,” said President Chaisson. “As we return to school, and get back to our routines, don’t forget about your neighbors. Check on them and lend a hand when you can as we are all dealing with this in various ways. Our Parish will come back better than we were before, stronger together!” said President Chaisson.
