Tommy Pitre rode his bicycle through downtown Thibodaux on Monday afternoon to witness Hurricane Ida's wreckage firsthand. It was one of the few ways to access the city, since law enforcement turned vehicles around at the main entrances and cell reception was nonexistent.
Pitre stopped pedaling as he reached the corner of West Third and Green streets, backing up to take in the scene. Hurricane-force winds had blown out the entire front of a three-story brick building, spilling bricks out onto the street below and crushing three vehicles parked there.
"I had to go around myself, just to see the damage," Pitre said. "We got lucky where I am. We got lucky."
The front of a building on W. 3rd Street fell onto three trucks from high winds from Hurricane Ida on Monday, August 30, 2021 in Thibodaux, La..
Pitre's apartment, which is located near Thibodaux Regional Medical Center, sustained no significant damage during the hurricane. He did not evacuate for the storm, but he could not sleep through the night as winds in excess of 100 miles per hour pounded Thibodaux for about five hours.
"I couldn't sleep at all," Pitre said. "The last one I remember being this bad was Hurricane Katrina."
'Harder than we could have even imagined'
Trucks are damaged by falling bricks from a building on W. 3rd St. during the aftermath of Hurricane Ida on Monday, August 30, 2021 in Thibodaux, La..
When Amanda Matis, the director of the largest shelter in Lafourche Parish, began hearing the winds getting stronger Sunday afternoon, she realized Ida was going to hit her town hard.
“Harder than we could have even imagined,” she said, sitting at a table in Thibodaux High School that has served as her desk over the past few days. Her eyes are tired. Her staff, three deputies, and 45 volunteers worked tirelesly to help residents who needed a roof over their heads while Ida was making landfall. “We have not slept for days (in order) to organize the efforts, and we are still doing our best, but we hope that the worst is over.”
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Inside the high school, at least 60 people have taken shelter. They are socially distanced, each family squashed into a separate hallway of the high school, eating chips, drinking coffee, playing with their dogs. They have many unanswered questions about when they might get home and whether they still have a home at all.
"We got to a point where we had 143 guests Sunday," Matis said. "The people who came here, basically the shelter is their last resort. Because of Ida, many of them do not have running water anymore. In the southern part of the parish, almost everyone is sharing the same issue."
The shelter wasn't spared, either.
"We are out of power. We are running on a minimum generator right now," Maris said.
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Hurricane Ida stalled out over Thibodaux for more than three hours. It felt never-ending residents in the shelter said. Many of them never dreamed they would have to leave their homes and take shelter here.
Zachary Hammontree, 31, is a veteran affected by post-traumatic stress disorder. He lives in Thibodaux with his wife, Jessica, and his two daughters, Jasmine, 5, and Lilly, 3.
"We came prepared. We had propane. We had food. We avoided leaving our place in the first place because my rule is, let's control what you can," he said, sitting on the foot of a bed. "When you evacuate, you have to take a COVID test before you board a bus, spend time with people that you do not know and that you do not know if they are sick."
But on Saturday, when the hurricane reached category 4, local officials enforced the mandatory evacuation home by home.
"They came in the afternoon, and we had to collect everything we could in less than thirty minutes," Hammontree said. "Still now, we don't know when we can go back home. They told us it could be three days or a week."
No power, no water and no service
Water surrounds a barn on Hwy. 20 during the aftermath of Hurricane Ida on Monday, August 30, 2021 in Schriever, La..
Thibodaux, which is located along the banks of Bayou Lafourche, is home to about 15,000 people. It's in the northwest region of Lafourche Parish. The city, and the communities nearby, saw devastation during Hurricane Ida that was still being assessed Monday afternoon.
Hotels are full in cities along the Interstate 10 and I-49 corridors for miles, travel websites show.
Metal buildings were crumpled beyond recognition. Roofs were peeled off of homes, and windows shattered from panes. A live oak near a planation home had been split down the center, its limbs sprawled sadly onto the ground below.
All of Lafourche Parish was without electricity on Monday, and the majority of the parish had no water service, according to Parish President Archie Chaisson III's video update posted to Facebook.
There was virtually no cell phone service or any way for residents who stayed in the parish to view the online update, which Chaisson acknowledged in the video. He asked for people to share the message through any means possible and urged those viewing from afar to stay put.
"This is going to take us a few days, guys, so you just got to be patient with me," Chaisson said. "I know everybody is in a rush to get home. I know everybody wants to check on their family and their friends and their stuff, but you've got to sit tight if you left town. If you try to come through on one of the main roads, you're going to get stopped and get turned around. And I don't need you sleeping in your car somewhere along the road. I need you to just stay put where you are right now.
"You will come home to no sanitary services, no way to take a shower, none of that stuff."
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Officials were still unsure exactly what failed with the water system as of midday Monday. They were also struggling to assess and clear roads south of the Intracoastal Waterway in the lower portion of the parish.
Brenda Gibbens, who lives in Schriever, expressed frustration over the limited communications in the aftermath of the hurricane.
Gibbens evacuated to Thibodaux and returned midday Monday to her home a few miles south in the unincorporated community of Schriever in Terrebonne Parish to assess the damage. Her home, and others in the area, flooded from water that overtopped a nearby drainage coulee. Multiple water pumps and backup generators, meant to prevent flooding, seem to have failed.
"I shouldn't have had water in my home," Gibbens said. "Nothing should have failed. There's more water on this side than there is in the drainage canal."
Resident Brenda Gibbens walkes to her flooded home on Hwy. 20 during the aftermath of Hurricane Ida on Monday, August 30, 2021 in Schriever, La..
Gibbens has lived in her home for 50 years. This was the third time it's flooded but the first time in 20 years she's taken in water. She expressed frustration over the flooding and downed trees blocking their street, noting that she was unable to reach any parish officials by phone.
A neighbor attached a fallen tree to a chain and dragged it out of the road with a pickup truck midday Monday.
"This is the last time," Gibbens said. "I'm not going through this again. It's time to find somewhere else to live."
Diane and Kerry Aucoin, both who are recovering from COVID-19, expressed gratitude Monday afternoon as they returned to their home in Donner, which is southwest of Schriever. Although they had downed limbs and fences to clean up, they were thankful to see their trailer home was still in livable condition after Hurricane Ida.
The husband and wife, who have lived in their home for 42 years, evacuated for the first time for Ida.
Residents Kerry Auction, left, and his wife Diane, right, talk bout their expericences during Hurricane Ida at their home on Azalea Dr. off Hwy. 20 on Monday, August 30, 2021 in Schriever, La..
Diane Aucoin cried as she recalled the stress of the last week. She said she waited nearly 10 hours in a hospital emergency department before being sent home with oxygen and breathing treatments for her coronavirus symptoms. There weren't enough beds or staff to admit her. She and her husband evacuated to stay with her daughter, who is a nurse, before returning home Monday afternoon.
"I've been here all my life, and I've never experienced a storm like this," Diane Aucoin said. "I've never evacuated before in my life. We're lucky. That's all I can say."
Kerry Aucoin said he and his grandchildren watched the storm in disbelief as the winds ripped a fence in one direction then flattened it again in the opposite direction.
"It's like it never would stop," Kerry Aucoin said. "We laughed. We cried. We prayed."
National Guard soldiers are en route to rescue those trapped in their homes in Lafourche Parish, Chaisson said. It will likely take several days to understand the full scope of the damage from Hurricane Ida.
"Hug your kids, and say a prayer," Chaisson said in the video. "We're going to rebuild it, guys."