My heart is in my throat. Hurricane Ida slammed Louisiana, my home for the last 13 years. I evacuated. The federal levees held. And yet, New Orleans residents cannot go home or stay because for the first time all transmission lines into the city are down and there is no power.
This is a man-made humanitarian crisis in the making.
What's not well known about Hurricane Katrina is that the worst came when the sun was shining and the storm had passed. This next week is critical.
While reports are still coming in and we don't know everything yet, I'm sure you're asking: how can I help? What can I do?Groups are already mobilizing to help people in need. Rush a donation to these frontline leaders and partners I work with in the Gulf South right now.
Louisiana coastal communities were already on the front lines of the oil-and-gas-industry fueled coastal land loss and petrochemical pollution crisis. And now we have friends and neighbors outside the levee who have lost everything.
Our community is strong: we take care of each other in the Gulf South because we have to. In the face of an international extraction economy and on the frontlines of the climate crisis, Gulf South environmental justice leaders have been doing the work, directing community-controlled mutual aid to people in need. The best way we can live our values and have a positive impact right now is to give resources to the people best able to deliver the relief: the people who have been here doing this work for decades.
Send a donation to the following organizations, all of whom are directly helping people throughout the Gulf Coast who have been impacted by Hurricane Ida:- United Houma Nation
- Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy’s Community-Controlled Fund for Hurricane Ida
- Foundation for Louisiana
- Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
- Louisiana Environmental Action Network
Direct relief is only a first step. We'll be in touch about what we can do next to rebuild a stronger, sustainable Gulf South.
Thank you for holding all of our friends and Louisiana family in your heart.