Weathering the Storm by Kristin W. Durand
President-Elect Shannon Brice, Community Council Director Rachel Stickney and President Kristin Moore sort donations received for Hurricane Laura Relief at JLNO Headquarters. Photo by Sonia Godfrey.
T
he forecast was ominous. The warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico provided the perfect conditions for a weather disturbance to explode from a tropical storm into a category 4 hurricane in just 48 hours. Predictions included a 20-foot storm surge that local officials described as “unsurvivable.” Coastal residents from Galveston, Texas to Gulfport, Mississippi braced for what may lie ahead, but ultimately it was southwest Louisiana that bore the brunt as Hurricane Laura made landfall at 1:00 am on Thursday, August 27, 2020. The images that emerged in the light of day were heart-wrenching. It was immediately evident that affected residents would need emergency aid for the foreseeable future. This same region was devastated 15 years earlier by Hurricane Rita, a storm that struck three short weeks after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005. With commemorations for the Crescent City’s recovery simultaneously overlapping with Laura’s landfall, it was impossible to ignore the similarities between our past and Lake Charles’ painful present. Cue the Junior League of New Orleans (JLNO).
“Our members are absolutely wonderful,” said Kristin Van Hook Moore, JLNO President. “There were a lot of people reaching out asking ‘What are we going to do?’” She explains how the Junior League rapidly mobilized its members and rallied their community partners to deliver as much aid as possible. Having experience with past natural disasters, League leadership knew the need for diapers would be immense, as would food, clothing and period products – all assets JLNO has ready access to. A clarion call was put out for donations citywide, and all hands were on deck as contributions began streaming into JLNO Headquarters, which was serving as a collection site for the City of New Orleans. Leila Darwish is the Community Engagement Coordinator at NOLA Ready, the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness. She explains how they contacted numerous voluntary organizations active in disasters (VOAD) in advance of the storms’ approach, but JLNO was the first to respond. Leila continues by saying, “JLNO was also the first organization to offer to serve as a donation drop off location for the City of New Orleans,
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