Louisiana families evacuate to Texas after Hurricane Ida; others at Red Cross shelters
At least 60 shelters have been established to receive evacuees in Louisiana and Mississippi after Hurricane Ida pounded the Gulf Coast over the weekend, a Red Cross official said Monday.
And many Louisiana families made their way to North Texas, where they are staying in hotels.
About 2,500 people were already in the shelters on Monday, and that number could increase because thousands of people in New Orleans and nearby areas are without power, authorities said. And it could be weeks before power is restored.
More than 1 million Louisiana utility customers were without power early Monday, according to CNBC.
The majority of the shelters are in Louisiana and Mississippi, according to Red Cross officials. Two were located in Orange, Texas, near the Louisiana border.
“Because of the pandemic, the Louisiana governor was trying to keep the residents of Louisiana in Louisiana,” said Michelle Tanner with the North Texas Red Cross on Monday.
Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday as a Category 4 storm with winds of 150 mph, one of the strongest storms to hit the region since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, according to CNBC.
WFAA-TV, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s media partner, has reported that hundreds of Louisiana families fled their homes and arrived in North Texas over the weekend.
Most of the Houston hotel rooms were filled up, and some evacuees headed to Dallas, according to the Dallas television station.
“Houston was the closest bigger area to get out of the way, but there was not a single hotel that had rooms,” evacuee Sarah McDonald told WFAA-TV. “People that actually went through Katrina, and they’re still living there, and they have to relive this.”
McDonald’s family stopped off in Dallas.
Jonathan Shortsowles, another evacuee staying in the Dallas area, called the situation “really scary.”
Mollie Fought, her husband Ethan, who is a Marine, and their 1-and-a-half-year-old daughter grabbed everything they could and left their New Orleans home before the hurricane made landfall, WFAA reported.
“We have a dog and a cat, so we piled all of them into the car,” Mollie Fought told WFAA. “We’re not from the South. We’re from California. We don’t understand hurricanes.”
