This is Home

By David W. Brown

Golden Meadow, Louisiana, was one of the many communities in the state that saw major devastation during Hurricane Ida. In addition to an obliterated power grid, the community endured weeks without running water or gas power. With no nearby gas stations working, generators were useless.

“I’ve been with the company for almost 21 years,” says Reggie Legendre, the store director of Rouses in Golden Meadow. “I opened the doors two days after the storm, looked around, and got down on the floor and started to cry. We were a total gut job.”

Markets in Golden Meadow officially welcomed back customers to the store.

It was Reggie Legendre who opened the doors.

“We have been feeding the community here since the storm passed,” he said. “We got donations out, gave away free water, gave away free meals. But nothing felt better than opening those doors.”

The problems aren’t over for the Golden Meadow community, however. “We still have a ways to go,” he says. “You’re looking at probably months and months—and maybe years—before this community is back to where it was before.”

He says it has been a humbling experience.

“Dealing with everything going on, both emotionally and physically, we’ve still found the strength to be here serving the community, because that’s what we were here for. And my team and myself, we’re passionate. We’re here for the community.”

Several members of the Rouses Golden Meadow team had to relocate after losing everything. The company helped facilitate those moves, employing them at other Rouses Markets in areas less affected by Ida. “We have an amazing team at Rouses. I can’t say it enough,” said Legendre.

Cleanup of the Golden Meadow location started right away. Like others in the community, the structure and lot had endured winds of 130 miles per hour, and suffered a sustained lack of electricity for several weeks. There was water in the building, the back room was torn away, as was part of the kitchen. But on September 29th — one month after the storm, to the day — Rouses

Rouses #82 team. Rouses Markets in Golden Meadow officially reopened one month after the storm, to the day.

The store after Hurricane Ida tore through

Reggie Legendre, the store director of Rouses in Golden Meadow