Hi- My name is Deana Diaz & I've spent the last week helping my co-workers to first get out of the Greater New Orleans area ahead of Hurricane Ida, a catastrophic Category 4 hurricane that his Southeast Louisiana on Sun 8/29, & now helping connect everyone to resources for shelter, food, water, supplies, & really anything at all that they need while we are all displaced for the next 1-3 weeks as our power supply is restored in the Greater New Orleans area.
There is hope as we have seen some energy transmission to the hospitals & EMS in limited areas but estimates for commercial & residential power restoration are anywhere from 1-3 weeks. It has already been 3 full days since the storm passed & energy officials are not quite finished assessing all the damages caused to our 8 main sources of power for the city & main power plant which were all compromised during the storm. While being out of power is a huge obstacle we are also facing both a heat wave & direction from city & state officials to stay away from our home parish if we have evacuated because of the lack of resources available to residents. This is mounting up costs for hotels, meals, & gas that none of us were ready to shell out right at the 1st of the month when we are all paying normal housing bills at our currently uninhabitable homes.
Our team & their families are spread throughout Orleans, Jefferson, St Charles, & St John the Baptist Parishes. The photos & videos of damage are devastating & while insurance/FEMA aid will help eventually we need help now to cover our current costs & the future costs of replacing things like the refrigerated groceries we lost that none of our insurance policies or FEMA will cover. There was also not a mandatory evacuation declared for some areas that sustained damage & therefore our insurance will not cover all of our repair/replacement needs even when those claims do get through all the red tape.
I am hoping to raise a minimum $300 for each of my ten co-workers: Brittany Seidel, Destiny Mcree, Desmond Feast, Shane Ann Portune, Jordan Walker, Kadeem Bolden, Jisela Cordova, Aiden Tiblier, Corey Dean, & Victoria Buquoi. We are all spread out from Houston, TX to St Pete, FL so anyone who has resources in any areas for evacuees please connect with me so I can share not only with each other but also our beloved communities who are all hurting during this recovery process. Some of us & our extended families are still in some of the harder hit areas looking for resources daily. Thanks for reading our story & thanks for supporting us in our time of need! Any surplus funds will go directly to purchasing supplies to support aid in our local communities of Orleans, Jefferson, St Charles, & St John the Baptiste Parishes.
