MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Help is on the way for families in southern Louisiana devastated by Hurricane Ida.
Members of St. Louis Catholic Church in East Memphis church held a supply drive to bring some relief to the area. Supporters have been loading a trailer in the church parking lot since Tuesday.
They’re delivering the goods to the city of Raceland tomorrow, where those supplies will be distributed to small towns throughout the region.
Church member EJ Gonda is coordinating this drive with several organizations, including Jit-Ex, a trucking fleet that provided the trailer.
“That’s not a vacation community,” Gonda said. “Yeah, you build back Florida. Yeah, you build back the Mississippi coast. You build back New Orleans, but what do you build back? These boxes here, they’re going to be using those to pack up and some people are going to move away and probably never come back.”
Gonda’s own family was impacted by the storm.
“My cousin’s house is destroyed,” Gonda said.
Ronnie Fittes is one of many Memphians donating supplies.
“At the very least we can give,” Fittes said. “If we can’t give our time and energy and efforts down there, we can give locally to have it shipped down there.”
