DONALDSONVILLE, La. (BRPROUD) — A week after hurricane Ida hit, many parishes still find themselves with no power and a lack of resources. One of these areas is Ascension Parish. The local and parish entities gave residents a helping hand.
Long lines stretch across the Frank Sotile Pavillion in Donaldsonville as people waited to receive meals, water, ice, and more to help as they recover from this storm.
“It is an outpouring from the entire community and those people that no doubt this man loved so well, so I’m just overwhelmed at the support that we’re getting here in Donaldsonville,” said Donaldsonville Mayor Leroy Sullivan.
1500 boxes of non-perishable foods, tarps, and hot plates were ready for the taking. Resident Janice Wilson said this is vital for the community.
“You get the items you need right away that you need, that’s necessary. I like that too. And so many churches out here are given different things to help us out a little bit, too. If it’s just one meal a day is good enough,” she said.
“We do have a lot of elderly folks that are out there that cannot get out. We’ve been trying to get some stuff to them,” said Ascension Parish District 1 Councilman Alvin Thomas.
These heavy recovery efforts are underway as people still feel the impact of Hurricane Ida
“Oh, my God. The disaster was so widespread, so many trees down, so many people, houses and apartments and things like that were destroyed,” said Wilson.
Downed power lines, trees and debris are still scattered across the city.
“What happened with Donaldsonville. The feed is coming from a St. James Way on 70 and Highway North of Iberville Parish. Both of those feeders were down. So that meant they had to get both of those feeders up. A lot of poles were down in order to get that done,” said Mayor Sullivan.
Sullivan said power should be restored soon. Although times are hard, the community sticks together.
“I say to all of my people and everybody, tough times don’t last but tough people do,” said Thomas.
“I would like to thank the parish, the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank, National Guard, mayor, parish president, sheriff, churches, and anyone who volunteered to make this possible,” said Thomas.
The parish plans to have another meal distribution site Wednesday in Sorrento off of Hwy 22.