Hurricane Ida Update from Easterseals Louisiana

As we are now 4 days post storm, we wanted to provide an update to our community stakeholders. Our State has suffered catastrophic damage. Utility restoration is slow going. There are still over 900,000 homes (44% of the entire State) without power. Some areas may be restored as soon as this week, but the majority of the restorations may take several weeks. Whole towns have been deemed uninhabitable. Cell service is improving across some areas, but remains non-existent in others. The focus continues to be search and rescue. This is a slow and delicate process because of lack of resources, dangerous road conditions, flooding and debris.

We are, however, pleased to report that we have made contact with all affected ESL employees. Our workforce is 100% located and as safe as they can be, although many are living without utilities and in damaged homes. Please keep our team members in mind in the coming days and weeks. Our Thibodaux service sites appear to have suffered minor damage, while our Covington and New Orleans locations are sound.

Our Northern office ESL team members continue to assist their Southern office team mates and are making consistent progress in connecting with participants. We are so thankful for this! As of this morning, we have made contact with 43% of our 1800+ affected participants. Unfortunately, what we are finding is that many folks have significant needs, and systems and resources are slow to come online. Physical access to some locations is not yet possible. Despite the challenges, our ESL is doing a phenomenal job with the resources we have available. This search and rescue and the forthcoming recovery will continue to be slow and tedious but we remain committed to our mission and will continue to do everything in our power to ensure health and safety. 

As recovery begins, there will be many and varied needs. We are asking for you to please give to support ESL. You'll be helping us urgently respond to the needs of our community, supporting thousands of participants with disabilities, their families, and all of our team members with the tools we need to recover from Ida's impact. You can donate right here on our Facebook page, or by visiting laeasterseals.com and clicking the blue "Donate" button on the top right of the page. We appreciate your support as we work to continue our mission during these difficult times. 

We will get through this TOGETHER, because we are #ESLstrong

With gratitude,

Tracy Garner

Easterseals Louisiana President & CEO