BUFFALO (WBEN) - The prominent disaster relief organization Eight Days of Hope is deploying nearly 2,000 people to Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Ida.
The organization is based in Mississippi, but has a northeast satellite right here in Buffalo.
President and Founder Steve Tybor said they've been to Louisiana eight times in the last six years, and it certainly takes an emotional toll to see one area of the country repeatedly being dealt blow after blow.
"To see a storm the size of Hurricane Ida hit on the 16th anniversary of Katrina was quite humbling," said Tybor. "LaPlace, a town just south of Lake Pontchartrain, has flooded. We've been to LaPlace before after Hurricane Isaac, so to hear that a town you've worked in the past has been flooded is a little bit heartbreaking."
A feeding trailer is kept in Buffalo, which possesses the capacity to feed about 1,000 people in two hours, and Tybor said that piece of equipment was deployed to New Orleans Monday afternoon.
Of course, there's no power in New Orleans right now, and the expectation is that full power won't return to the city for another two to three weeks.
"We're taking generators from Buffalo and from Tupelo, Mississippi," Tybor added. "The places that we'll be housed at, normally a church, we'll bring a generator to their facility so that they then can house people locally who can't be in their homes. It's all about bringing people to a place they know they can be safe, feeding them, and then going to their houses to try to protect what assets are left that weren't damaged, and then very quickly help them to start the journey with a new beginning."
According to the Associated Press, more than 1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi — including all of New Orleans — were left without power as Ida.
"We've been doing this for 16 years, and we've been to Louisiana many, many times," Tybor continued, with tears forming in his eyes. "We have friends from every city I've mentioned - from Lake Charles to Baton Rouge, to Lafayette, to LaPlace, right over to New Orleans. Last night at 1:15 (a.m.), I had three texts from three different pastors in three cities just saying, 'Pray for us,' 'It's bad out there,' 'Steve, we need you.' Sometimes it gets a little bit emotional when you go back to the same neighborhood and the same city."
