DALLAS — Hurricane Ida made landfall along the Louisiana coast Sunday as a powerful and dangerous category 4 storm, bringing catastrophic storm surge and destruction to the state.
The storm, whose winds topped out at 150 mph, was one of the strongest hurricanes, by wind speed, to ever hit Louisiana.
Thousands of residents along the coast fled ahead of the storm in order to get out of the hurricane's path. Here's how you can help.
American Red Cross
The Red Cross said some 600 volunteers are either on the ground or staged to support relief efforts after Ida makes landfall. Across Louisiana and Mississippi, the Red Cross and other organizations have opened dozens of evacuation shelters offering safe refuge for hundreds of people. The number of open shelters and people staying in them is changing hourly.
Those who wish to help can visit redcross.org, call 800-RED-CROSS, or text the word IDA to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army said it is staging some crews in Beaumont, Texas to be able to help in the aftermath of Ida. In addition to a fleet of more than 35 mobile kitchens assigned year-round to locations in Texas, The Salvation Army also operates a command unit, refrigerated truck, a laundry unit, shower unit, bunkhouse, and two Field Kitchens. These large field kitchens can produce between 15,000-20,000 meals per day.
Those who wish to donate can do so:
Online: give.helpsalvationarmy.org/.
By Phone:
1-800-SAL-ARMY (1-800-725-2769)
By Mail:
Central Territory
10 West Algonquin Rd
Des Plaines, IL 60016
Eastern Territory
440 West Nyack Rd
West Nyack, NY 10994
Southern Territory
PO BOX 1959
Atlanta, GA 30301
Western Territory
30840 Hawthorne Boulevard
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Labeled "disaster relief" or with the name of the disaster response being supported (e.g. "Hurricane Ida")
World Central Kitchen
Chef José Andrés with World Central Kitchen, an organization that provides food relief in areas hit by disaster, tweeted that a team in New Orleans would activate its three fully-stocked kitchen facilities in the city. He said they have supplies already on hand for more than 100,000 meals.
Those who wish to help can donate to donate.wck.org/give/.
World Vision
World Vision, a humanitarian organization, is helping hurricane victims with relief items such as buckets, tarps and diapers from their Dallas warehouse.
Those interested in helping can donate to their disaster relief fund: https://donate.worldvision.org/give/disaster-relief-in-the-usa
This is a running list and will be updated with new information.