RESERVE, La. (WGNO) — Take a trip to St John the Baptist Parish and you’ll find that the area is still devastated by Hurricane Ida. Homes are severely damaged, debris is piling up and the repairs are seemingly endless.
In Reserve, folks living in mobile home communities say their road to recovery has been especially challenging.
“I’m thankful that I got my trailer, but it’s barely standing,” said Donshieka Brown.
Brown lives in a trailer with her children and husband. For nearly two months, she’s been living without a portion of her roof and she says her electricity is unstable.
“I’m scared if we go to sleep at night, I don’t know if I’m going to have my house catch on fire while me and my kids are in the house sleeping because it’s constantly frying at night, my whole circuit breaker,” said Brown.
Brown is one of the lucky ones in her community. Many of her neighbor’s homes were ripped apart by Ida’s whipping winds.
Down the road from Brown, residents in Reserve Trailer Community are also picking up the pieces.
“I’ve been here 25 years and it’s taken that long to actually put together what little we have what we have what we call home, so cleaning up is probably going to take a considerable amount of time,” said Teddy Reynolds.
Reynolds and his neighbors have been cleaning up the damage over the last few weeks, trying to restore their community to what it once was.
“We come together as a community to clean each and every lot that we possibly can, and clear them off to the point to where at least their livable and try to get them back to some kind of normalcy,” said Reynolds.
Like Reynolds, Brown and the rest of St. John the Baptist Parish are working everyday to recover, hoping that a life of normalcy is in reach.
Temporary FEMA trailers are now available for eligible Hurricane Ida victims in St John the Baptist Parish.
For information on how you can apply, go to https://idashelteringla.com/en-US/