Home Care In Ida, LA

DUSON, La. — As Hurricane Ida made landfall to the east, La Morenita Meat Market was one of the last few stores still open in the area around Lafayette on Sunday.

Every Waffle House in the region had closed before noon — usually the best sign that area residents should take storm predictions seriously and head home for shelter. But the tiny Hispanic market was packed with so many Latino residents buying storm provisions and last-minute evacuees fleeing Ida's path Sunday that Elsa Lopez wasn't able to finish her shift at the market until well into the afternoon.

"Ya voy para mi casa, gracias a Dios" ("I'm finally going home, praise God"), she texted reporters at 4 p.m., two hours before a curfew in Lafayette Parish took effect.

Hurricane Ida slammed into the Louisiana coast Sunday afternoon as a Category 4 storm, disabling power in New Orleans and flooding much of southeastern Louisiana and parts of Mississippi with a deadly storm surge. Some who were able to evacuate in time took shelter with relatives or friends in places such as Lafayette Parish, which was just west of Ida's path.

Although Lafayette was expected to escape most of the high winds and floods flattening areas within the direct path of Hurricane Ida, Lopez planned to spend the evening at the Duson home of her son Reynieri Castro. A dozen members of her extended family were converging there, too, from Lafayette to Abbeville.

Much of the family, including Lopez, lived in mobile homes around the area, which could be dangerous even without hurricane-force winds. Castro was the only one who had a home with a solid foundation.

"Yesterday, I was announcing that anyone who needed refuge or help, we would be available for them, supporting the Latino community," Castro said.

But no one had to take him up on his offer, Castro said, as others probably realized the same thing he and his family had: This time, Lafayette was likely to be spared. Instead of evacuating as they had for previous hurricanes or anxiously awaiting incoming weather, they secured the trampoline and playset in the yard, fired up the grill and settled in for a barbecue of ribs, salchichas (sausages) and salsa — and of all things, a hurricane birthday party.

Lopez's granddaughter, Marielsy Castro, turned 16 Sunday, born the same day the last hurricane, Katrina, devastated New Orleans — although she was born in Honduras, not Louisiana.

"I didn't even realize it was the same day," she said, "Until I starting seeing TikToks about the anniversary."

NEW ORLEANS – The Louisiana National Guard is conducting emergency operations throughout coastal Louisiana in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida while continuing COVID-19 response missions.

More than 4,400 members of the Louisiana Guard, augmented by more than 3,000 Guard members from 15 other states and 485 active-duty service members, were in Louisiana protecting lives and property, maintaining communications, and ensuring the continuity of operations and government.

The LANG focused on ensuring accessibility of roadways, distributing commodities, providing temporary electric power and assisting local law enforcement.

National Guard engineer teams have assessed over 5,280 miles of roadway and cleared over 2,930 miles of road in 20 parishes. They have also cleared 13,324 cubic yards of debris from 90 municipal facilities. Much of this effort is led by the LANG's 225th Engineer Brigade.

"When a storm has passed, we immediately need to get on the ground, assess, and clear the routes in order to allow access for emergency responders as well as any power companies to start working," said Col. Greg St. Romain, commander of the 225th. "We're very dynamic, we've become versatile, and we are adaptable to any mission that comes our way."

The LANG has worked with the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to provide generators to areas without electricity. There are 235 generators on-site and 29 installations underway, with 93 sites under assessment for installation.

"This is another way the National Guard supports citizens, the health care system, municipalities and industry in Louisiana," said Lt. Col. Terry Vallarautto, commander of Task Force Generator response operations.

"After the storm passed, we pulled generators to multiple places, sewage plants, the Joint Force Headquarters in Covington, and homeless shelters in New Orleans. We had all of our guys going out to deliver generators, as well as performing repairs that were needed," said Spc. Courtney Braswell, an assistant production controller working out of the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Baton Rouge.

More than 1,000 Louisiana Guardsmen were assisting law enforcement in 17 parishes by providing traffic control and shelter security.

The Regional Staging Area (RSA) in Tangipahoa Parish is deploying trucks and trailers with commodities and is supporting 69 distribution sites in 12 parishes. The RSA has dispatched over 50 vehicles to provide clean, potable water to those sites. Additionally, the LANG has distributed 5,132,333 meals, 227,972 tarps, 6,273,686 liters of water, 936,151 bags of ice and 224,000 sandbags to people.

The Louisiana Air National Guard's 159th Medical Group's Chemical, Biological, Radiological/Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) - Enhanced Response Force Package has been augmenting the Terrebonne General Health System to provide additional support to the hospital's walk-in clinic.

Hurricane Ida badly damaged TG Health System, forcing the staff and patients to evacuate from the hospital and limiting the number of patients who can be treated.

"[The 159 MDG] has set up a small, stand-up, walk-in clinic, and our troops will be providing medical capabilities that are slightly above that of a walk-in clinic," said Lt Col. Mark Allen, general medical officer from the 159th MDG. "We [were tasked with] this mission in 2011 and we've been working every year to perfect it … we are incredibly proud to have this up today and see it function."

The CERFP brings capabilities like oxygen, ventilators and automated external defibrillators to help the hospital provide basic and advanced life support.

The LANG rescued 397 people and 65 pets through air, land and water search and rescue efforts after the storm passed.

Throughout the hurricane response, the LANG has continued COVID-19 operations, supporting 35 open medical test sites, seven food banks and 22 vaccination sites.

Wendy Ida proves that you don’t have to be a 20-something Instagram influencer to bring the #fitspo.

The 66-year-old personal trainer rallies midlife clients who are feeling too stuck, broken down and defeated to crush their goals, fitness or otherwise.

“I tell them, ‘You are still just a baby,’ ” Ida says with a chuckle. “ ‘You have so much life to live, love to give, places to go. You have a ways to go and the show is not over.’ ”

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After all, Ida, pronounced (ee-duh), a former accountant, discovered fitness herself only in her early 40s, after escaping an abusive relationship. Now the Lakewood resident is certified as a personal trainer as well as in core training, functional training, Pilates, TRX, Zumba and nutrition. (It’s enough to land her the Guinness world record for “oldest multi-discipline fitness instructor.”)

Today, Ida, a former national bodybuilding champion, trains clients in person and online, and guest teaches and lectures at conferences around the world.

She also looks at least two decades younger than her 66 years and can crank out more burpees per minute — 37 is her personal record — than women a third her age.

Here are her tips for regaining your fitness mojo at any age, but especially after 50.

You can get buff at any age

1. Use it or lose it: Ida hasn’t toned down her exercise routine in recent years. She still favors circuit training three or four times a week with full-body moves that strengthen and tone, such as push-ups, squat jumps and burpees mixed with intervals on the treadmill or bike.

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2. Lift! “You can build muscle while you’re burning fat,” she says. The biggest mistake she sees women of a certain age make is walking or doing aerobics but not lifting weights or doing body weight exercises.

3. Mix it up. “If you want to be better, stronger and healthier and achieve other exciting goals, you can’t just go out there and walk and do the same things you’ve always been doing,” she says.

4. Build in breaks. She takes alternate days off from her strength circuit to engage in “active rest” such as a light jog, dancing or a bike ride to give her body a break.

5. Her 20-20-20 formula. Her approach to fitness centers on a 20-20-20 formula, with 20 minutes of exercise most days, 20 minutes of morning meditation and 20 minutes of some kind of learning to keep her feeling at the top of her game.

6. No to Keto. Ida doesn’t believe in following fad diets. “What I do believe in is a healthy balance” of nutrients,” she said.

7. Don’t go hungry. She eats small meals every three or four hours to rev the metabolism, keep her energy up and stave off cravings.

8. Choose organic when possible. She tries to eat an all-organic diet, from her morning oatmeal to her produce.

9. Try cutting back or ditching meat: She recently began trying a vegan lifestyle to see how it would make her feel. So far, so good, she says.

10. Work on the mental game. When making changes to your health, find ways to get yourself excited and motivated by the process, so that you’re ready to commit to the necessary lifestyle changes.

11. Keep it fun. It’s also important to keep things playful if it’s going to stick. For Ida that means trying to limit energy-sapping stress, creating more opportunities for laughter and “dancing like no one’s watching.” “As we get older we get way too serious,” she said. “To stay moving we need to keep it fun. Find the spark that feeds your flame.”

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Much of the city flooded. Homes and businesses also have extensive wind damage.

Tiffany Guidry said she’ll always remember the wind from Hurricane Ida.

She rode out the storm Sunday in her house along Airline Highway in LaPlace. On Monday evening, there was still four inches of water surrounding her home and the sno-ball stand that she runs next door. The storm had ripped off parts of the roofs on her home and business. A few uprooted trees were strewn about her yard.

With winds clocking in at 150 miles an hour — and gusts reportedly of up to 180 miles an hour — Ida was one of the strongest storms ever to hit the nation when it barreled ashore Sunday afternoon.

“I’ve never experienced wind like that,” she said. “I wasn’t really concerned about the wind — until the wind started.”

But Guidry considers herself lucky. There may be standing water around her home and in parts of her subdivision, but most of it hadn’t managed to get into her house or business yet. The water damage to her sno-ball stand was caused by rain that came through the ceiling when parts of the roof were ripped off. It won’t be as hard to clean up as flood water, she said.

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The people on the other side of Airline Highway weren’t so lucky. Those homes took on several feet of water. Hurricane Ida, Guidry said, was the worst storm she had ever seen hit LaPlace. It was even worse than Hurricane Isaac in 2012, when thousands of unsuspecting LaPlace residents were flooded out of their houses.

Ida caused massive upheaval across southeastern Louisiana that is expected to last for several weeks, but the state’s most densely populated areas were largely spared from flooding. New Orleans and its inner suburbs are struggling with power and water services — a problem that could last for a few weeks — but the $14.5 billion levee and floodgate protection system that was upgraded after Hurricane Katrina succeeded in keeping New Orleans and its neighboring parishes mostly dry.

“We don’t believe we had a single levee that actually failed,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards Monday afternoon.

The same cannot be said for communities, like LaPlace, that are located immediately outside of that storm-protection system and don’t benefit from its security. By Monday morning, many residents in LaPlace — located 30 miles north of New Orleans and west of Lake Pontchartrain — had to be extricated from their homes as the water rose. A levee to protect the community from floodwaters is under construction, but hasn’t been finished yet.

State officials said some people in LaPlace had to be retrieved from the air — using what they call a “hoist and lift” operation. On Monday, the Louisiana National Guard rescued 191 people and 27 pets across Jefferson, Orleans and St. John the Baptist, where LaPlace is located. LaPlace was not only dealing with flooding, but like the rest of southeastern Louisiana, it was without power, water and mobile phone service Monday. The governor said Monday evening that more than million homes and businesses in Louisiana are without power and 312,000 people don’t have access to running water. The situation is so dire that several elected officials — including Edwards — told people who evacuated not to return to their homes until their local government officials say it is ok to do so. “Quite frankly, we need to put as little demand on our water systems and our electric grid as possible,” Edwards said.

Ronnie and Stacey Pigott decided to go to a public shelter with their four children, when it became apparent that their home’s power and water could be out for days. On Monday evening, they sat outside the New Wine Christian Fellowship Church on Airline Highway waiting for a bus to take them out of LaPlace. “Even when Isaac hit, the water never got that high,” Ronnie Pigott said.

All of the shingles came off the Pigotts’ house while the hurricane raged after dark Sunday night. When that happened, water started to pour into the house. They managed to clean it up a bit during Monday morning, but when it started raining in the afternoon, they realized they weren’t able to stay in the house. “It was raining inside the house and you could smell the mold,” said Stacey Pigott. “There’s supposed to be another rainstorm coming through and there was no way that house is going to hold.”

Pigott was reluctant to go to a shelter at first — because she has two young daughters and was concerned about the safety of sleeping around adult men — but then she didn’t feel like she had much of a choice. Even those LaPlace residents who have little damage to their homes said the current living conditions are difficult — and they are worried about their ability to stay.

Shanereka Tillman’s house was largely spared by Ida, but she still doesn’t have electricity or running water in her home. She’s told it could take three weeks for those services to come back. Tillman said she wasn’t able to evacuate because she had to work. She’s a supervisor at an industrial plant that did not close for the hurricane. “Even if they would just give us the water, we could make do with flashlights and candles,” she said.

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Hospitals locally and across Louisiana, already packed with coronavirus patients from a fourth surge of the virus, were dealing Sunday with another challenge — the howling Category 4 hurricane pounding the coast.

"Once again we find ourselves dealing with a natural disaster in the midst of a pandemic," said Jennifer Avegno, the top health official for New Orleans.

Lady of the Sea General Hospital in Galliano, a 20-bed facility near where Ida made landfall, reported extensive roof damage.

Hurricane Ida updates:All of New Orleans without power

"All patients and staff are fine at this time without injury; although, our hospital has sustained significant damage," hospital CEO Karen Collins said in a message relayed via Facebook. The hospital's phone system was down.

"Once it is safe to do so they will evacuate their small number of patients," state health department spokeswoman Aly Neel said in an email.

Details on the number of patients involved were not immediately available.

Lafourche Parish Emergency Preparedness Director Chris Boudreaux told The Courier and Daily Comet "a few" patients and staff were inside at the time.

Thibodaux Regional Medical Center reported a partial generator failure to the state.

Christina Stephens, a spokesperson for Gov. John Bel Edwards, said the facility "had not lost all critical power." She said some patients were moved to another part of the facility and the state health department was working with the hospital.

Ida struck as hospitals and their intensive care units were filled with patients from the fourth surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, sparked by the highly contagious delta variant and low vaccination rates across Louisiana.

Daily tallies of new cases in Louisiana went from a few hundred a day through much of the spring and early summer to thousands a day by late July. Gov. John Bel Edwards told The Associated Press on Sunday that more than 2,400 COVID-19 patients are in Louisiana hospitals, saying the state was in a "very dangerous place with our hospitals."

The governor also said 22 nursing homes and 18 assisted living facilities have been evacuated though evacuating the largest hospitals was not an option because there simply aren't other places to send them. Anticipating that power could be out for weeks in places, Edwards said a big focus will be on making sure there is enough generator power and water at hospitals so they can keep up with vital patient needs such as providing oxygen or powering ventilators.

"I hate to say it this way, but we have a lot of people on ventilators today and they don't work without electricity," he said.

Officials at Ochsner Health, which runs the largest hospital network in Louisiana, said roughly 15 of the network's hospitals are in areas potentially affected by Ida. The network evacuated some patients with particular medical needs from small, rural hospitals to larger facilities.

Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Ochsner Health, said Sunday that the system decided preemptively to evacuate a smaller hospital in St. Charles Parish when the storm's track shifted a bit east.

He said 35 patients were moved to other hospitals in the region over a little less than three hours. When it comes to power at their facilities, Mike Hulefeld said, they are in pretty good shape. Three of their facilities in areas affected by Ida were moved to generator power in anticipation of losing city power.

Hulefeld said the hospital network ordered 10 days of supplies for facilities in areas that might be affected by Ida, and everything arrived Saturday. Each facility has backup power that was tested and a backup fuel truck on-site. Many of the chain's hospitals also have water wells in case city water goes out.

With people evacuating and potentially going to stay with relatives or in shelters, medical officials said they are concerned the hurricane could translate into more coronavirus infections in coming days just as hospitalization numbers are going down. Thomas said the hospital system has seen a decline in almost 200 coronavirus patients over the past week across all their facilities.

Officials said Sunday they have been making the rounds and talking to staff in the hospitals — often referred to as the "A Team" because they're the ones that go into lockdown when a hurricane arrives and work until the storm passes and they can be relieved. The hurricane comes on top of the year and a half long pandemic that has been an amazing stress on health care workers, and many are sad and frustrated.

"Folks realize they got a job to do. There are people who need to be cared for," Thomas said. "But it does take a toll."

Dr. Jeff Elder, medical director for emergency management at LCMC Health, said the system's six hospitals went into lockdown mode Sunday. Employees were going to stay at the hospitals for the duration of the storm arrived Saturday and early Sunday and would sleep there.

Elder said one of the first things their hospitals do when storms arrive is discharge patients who are able to leave. However, the patient load is high because of the pandemic so they're not able to reduce by much. He said the hospitals in the system are more robust since 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

"We've learned a lot since 2005," he said. Key pieces of infrastructure are now raised to keep them out of flooding. For example, at University Medical Center in New Orleans, which was built after Katrina, the generator is raised, diesel supplies are protected and the first floor doesn't have essential services so even if flood waters get that high nothing essential is lost.

All hospitals in the system have generator backup power, Elder said. He also stressed that communication is now much better between hospitals in the hospital system as well as with various levels of government.

-- Melinda Deslatte reported from Baton Rouge. Associated Press reporter Kevin McGill contributed from New Orleans. Follow Rebecca Santana on Twitter @ruskygal. The Courier and Daily Comet contributed to this story.