Both Leslie and I were called up by FEMA to serve in southern Louisiana after hurricane Laura. We generally are called up together, but are assigned to different teams. Generally, our teams work relatively close to each other so that Leslie and I can share the same hotel. Because of damage to the area, we stayed in New Orleans and commuted 2-3 hours to the southern area of the state.

Unfortunately, hurricanes disproportionately affect the lower socioeconomic portions of any region, and southern Louisiana is no exception with an abundance of mobile homes. But people close to the coast also tried to get further away by moving their RVs north a bit, and riding out the storm, like this Wal-Mart parking lot.

Wal-Mart parking lot.

These are just some examples of mobile home structural protection (or lack thereof) in a hurricane and why people try to flee…

This was someone’s home.

Rips the wall off, but leaves the sofa.

Utterly obliterated.

This was originally an RV people were living in.

But sometimes bad things happen in addition to the direct damage from the hurricane.

This tree was a bull’s eye on this home.

The right part of this house is simply gone.

Our Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA) cadre, at the beginning of every disaster, works 7 days a week from 7am to 7pm (sunrise to sunset), for the first several weeks. Then the hours are cut to 10 hours a day, then about after a month plus or so we get one day off.  On her day off Leslie and some other teammates visited a former plantation in Thibodaux that is now a working tourist attraction. We love seeing America on our various deployments!

Leslie at an old entrance to the plantation.

Former slave quarters.

An old boiler used for the sugar cane.

Leslie and her teammates.