Hurricane Ida,  a devastating storm tore through several states that lie on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast of the United States. Ida was first sighted by people living in Louisiana on August 26, and its last reported sighting was on September 4 of 2021.

Hurricane Ida was a category 4 hurricane that reached wind speeds of 150 mph. Ida took the lives of 109 people in less than a month. 66 of those deaths were directly caused by the hurricane, and the other 43 were indirectly caused by the hurricane.

Hurricane Ida hit multiple cities on the East coast, including Georgia, and parts of North Carolina.

To the right you can see  where Hurricane Ida had hit, and the places that were estimated to be hit by the hurricane. The map is from weather.com.

 Compared to previous hurricanes, it was among the worst of the hurricanes. Before Hurricane Ida, there was a really big hurricane that struck Louisiana, hurricane Laura. “Ida is considered to have been stronger than Hurricane Laura at landfall”, accuweather.com states, “which crashed ashore in southwestern Louisiana in late August 2020 with 150 mph sustained winds.”

There have been many complications that the hurricane has caused. One of these problems was that multiple of the power lines were damaged or wiped out due to the high wind speed, leaving many people without power for days. People sought refuge in many different places, including restaurants, different cities, and even different states. Many people from Louisiana fled to Northern Texas to escape the hurricane. Along with fleeing their places, many people were left homeless after the hurricane destroyed their homes.

The hurricane had affected many people, but the people that were affected worse were the people that were unprepared for these natural disasters. Many people, even in places that aren’t really affected by natural disasters, have said that they don’t have a plan. When asked if he had a plan in place, Alex Gonzalez said, “No, no plan” 

As devastating as this hurricane has been, many people have grown closer to others and have had more compassion towards others. There are many ways that you can help people that have been affected by hurricanes and other natural disasters. You can donate to multiple organizations that help people in need, like the American Red Cross that provides food and water to people in need, or NOLA Ready, that helps divide the supplies to give to the people. 

We cannot stop horrible things from happening in the world, but from these bad things, you can see a person’s true colors. Some may show that they are heroes and others may show something else.

 “Bad things do happen in the world, like war, natural disasters, disease.” Daryn Kagan, former CNN news anchor and journalist, states, “But out of those situations always arise stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things.”