Appeal Code: 628N
Situation
Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana on Sunday as a dangerous Category 4 storm with 150 mile per hour winds. The full extent of the storm’s damage is still unknown; rescue efforts are underway. Ida has been blamed for at least two deaths. It left more than a million people in Louisiana and Mississippi, including the entire city of New Orleans, without power. We will know more in the coming days.
CWS Response
There are three components to CWS hurricane response efforts:
- Immediate coordination with and financial support for partners in affected areas. Through these relationships, we can meet urgent needs especially to most vulnerable families and their children.
- Shipping CWS Emergency Cleanup Buckets, Hygiene Kits, School Kits and Blankets in response to requests from organizations on the ground.
- Financial and expert support for long-term recovery in the months and years after the storm. We also work to ensure that vulnerable groups such as undocumented neighbors or recently-arrived refugees and their children are included in the recovery process.
We plan to pursue all three response areas in the wake of Hurricane Ida. We are coordinating with the Louisiana VOAD, our member communions and a local partner organization in Louisiana to set a strategy for meeting immediate needs in the days to come. We are focused on gathering information about how Hurricane Ida impacted immigrant and refugee communities who may not be fully included in other relief efforts. Our team is already responding to requests for supplies for affected communities in Louisiana. We will ship CWS Emergency Cleanup Buckets, Blankets and Hygiene Kits as requested.
Please note: CWS will respond to Hurricane Ida. We are in the early and information-gathering stages and will publish a full appeal by the end of September.
How to Help
Donations can be made online at cwsglobal.org/hurricanes-2021 or sent to Church World Service (P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515). Please designate your gift to 2021 Hurricane Response.
Learn more about our U.S. partnerships and long-term recovery work here. For more information or to get involved, please contact Mark Munoz, Associate Director, Domestic Disaster Program, at mmunoz@cwsglobal.org.
Learn more about the CWS Kits program at cwskits.org. If you are from a congregation that would like to learn more about this ministry or discuss how you can help, please contact Director of Congregational Giving Matthew Stevens at mstevens@cwsglobal.org.