The Salvation Army hands out lunches at a distribution center in New Orleans after Hurricane Ida caused power outages and damage to homes.
Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui/BloombergThe Evolution of Mutual Aid in New Orleans
Community networks to support residents in disaster and sickness have been around since the 19th century. After Hurricane Ida, social media amplified the calls for aid.
With the season of charitable giving in full swing, it’s worth looking back to August when Hurricane Ida — one of the costliest weather disasters out of the Atlantic — triggered a New Orleans mutual aid network that lives on four months later.
The fact that Ida made landfall in Louisiana on the same day that Hurricane Katrina landed 16 years ago perhaps was a too-painful reminder of the woeful government response to that destructive storm. And so, armed with new technology that didn’t exist in 2005, Ida’s survivors ignited a system where people around the world could donate resources directly and immediately to the storm’s victims, well before FEMA could write its first check.