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In the wake of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, our sister organization, NYRAG, is monitoring emerging news and tracking relief and recovery efforts. They will continue to update the RA's and share their members' responses as we learn more about the changing situations in the Gulf Coast and Texas and the organizations that are delivering aid to those in need.
Hurricane Gustav made landfall in the Gulf Coast on Monday, September 1, 2008. Despite earlier worries, New Orleans was spared a direct hit by the brunt of the storm, and its levees held. Still, several outlying rural communities in southeastern and central Louisiana have suffered extensive flooding and property damage, as have coastal areas of Mississippi.
Gustav has also caused $372 million in damages to Louisiana's crops and $46 million in damages to its fisheries, according to initial estimates. The hurricane struck during harvest season and wreaked even wider damage on the state's farmbelt industries than Hurricane Katrina did in 2005 (since it traveled far into central and north Louisiana after making landfall). Many residents are also feeling the severe financial impact of their evacuation and return, and there is significant concern that small businesses, farmers, and fishermen in the hardest-hit areas may not recover.
Officials are still working to restore electricity to thousands of homes and stores in the region, and Louisiana's principal utility says it will be the last week of September before everyone’s power is restored. Supplies in the state have been running low as people are forced to dispose of food spoiled by the power outages. Many have had to wait in lines for basic provisions, emergency meals, water, and ice.
Hurricane Ike made landfall at Galveston, Texas, on Saturday, September 13. Approximately 1.2 million people heeded warnings to evacuate the Texas coast, but by some estimates at least 140,000 remained behind. An enormous rescue operation transported thousands by boat and helicopter out of flood-ravaged and almost completely devastated areas. Millions of other residents are coping with power outages and shortages of food, water, and gasoline, and it may be weeks before evacuees are able to return to Galveston and other coastal areas.
Ike is being blamed for over 50 deaths in nine states, including at least 20 in Texas. As the storm left the Gulf Coast, it became a tropical depression, causing flooding, high winds, and property damage across the Midwest.
Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city, was largely paralyzed by the storm. Its downtown business district was damaged in a number of places by the hurricane’s high winds, and, due to power outages, a weeklong curfew has been imposed. Most of Houston escaped flooding, but several Texan cities and towns near the Louisiana border did not, and hundreds of homes in Louisiana reported new power failures and flood damage, even as that state has continued its recovery from Hurricane Gustav. |
