NEW ORLEANS — Hundreds of thousands of people remain without power in southeast Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Ida.
Some residents are growing desperate but help is starting to arrive. They're searching and waiting for supplies like food, power and gas to get there and they've spent the last three days in the brutal summer heat with no electricity.
The Louisiana National Guard set up two distribution sites in the city on Wednesday. The sites handed out much need items like dried meals, water and ice.
Maj. Christian Cannon, deputy commander for Taskforce Orleans of the Louisiana National Guard, said they’re able to serve thousands of people each day at each site.
“To be able to help the people of New Orleans means more to me than you can know,” Cannon said. “On the 16th anniversary ... I was here for Katrina and so to be able to provide this help means to us.”
The need for food and water is evident but so is the demand for power and gas. People are waiting hours for a chance to fill up their cars.
“Yesterday, we got to this light right here. They said they had no more gas so we had to wake up around 4 in the morning to get gas. Finally, get gas ... and we can go back to Texas,” Texas resident Jerry Espinosa said.
The Louisiana National Guard said three more distributions sites will open up Thursday across New Orleans. They expect the sites up and running as long as they’re needed which they say could last weeks.