2021-09-27 07:00:00
Cedar Rapids native shares story of surviving Hurricane Ida in New Orleans
by Nathan Santo Domingo
Monday, Sep 27th 2021
Lee Cox, who rode out Hurricane Ida in New Orleans, back home now in Cedar Rapids after his house sustained major damage in the storm{p}{/p}
Lee Cox was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, but in the late 1990s, he decided it was time to see more of the world.
Travel brought him to New Orleans, and the Big Easy quickly grabbed hold of him. He decided to move there in 1998 and stayed up until 2004 when work took him to California.
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On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana, decimating the New Orleans levee system, killing more than 1,800 people and causing approximately $125 billion in damage.
Cox was working for a trucking company at the time and helped ship FEMA loads into Louisiana following Katrina.
After seeing the impacts of Katrina firsthand, he felt the urge to move back, but wasn’t able to make it happen until several years later.
“If you’re meant to be in New Orleans, she’s gonna let you know,” he says.
Now in year six going on seven back in New Orleans, Cox says there was a heightened awareness and sense of nervousness as Ida formed in the days leading up to the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
As some say, history has a way of repeating itself, and Ida made landfall on August 29th, 16 years to the day after Katrina. Cox hunkered down with his roommate as the category 4 storm made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, with winds up to 150 mph.
Thankfully, the track of Ida was one that did not deal such a catastrophic blow to New Orleans’ levees, but the damage near landfall was significant, and the loss of life palpable, as Hurricane Ida killed 33 in Louisiana alone.
In New Orleans, the entire city was left without power as powerful wind gusts toppled the city’s main transmission lines.
“You could literally feel from some of the wind gusts the houses shaking on their foundations,” described Cox.”
As many Iowans know, the recovery following a natural disaster is a long process, but the community response is immediate. Cox says as soon as the winds eased and the rains stopped, his neighborhood sprung into action.
“All of a sudden we’ve got a charging station for people to use, and then the whole neighborhood starts bringing in food, and then all of a sudden people from other neighborhoods are coming in and getting food, and people who are homeless in the French Quarter are coming and getting food, and everyone’s being taken care of,” says Cox.
In the days following the storm, the sweltering heat sent thousands without power to cooling centers. For Cox, it was time to come back to Iowa. But just as he arrived back in his childhood hometown, other Iowans were heading in the opposite direction.
Willie Ray’s Q Shack and Together We Achieve set out for Louisiana in the weeks following the storm to provide necessities and a hot meal for people in need.
When asked what it meant to see his adoptive home and original hometown come together during a time of crisis, Lee Cox says that’s just what it means to be from Iowa.
“When I’m down in New Orleans and I tell people I grew up in Iowa, they’re like, ‘Isn’t that nothing but like flat and corn,’ and the only thing I can say in answer to your question is – Willie Ray and this other group – that’s Iowa y’all. That’s Iowa. That’s my Iowa, that’s where I grew up. That’s the mentality that we had when I grew up. If the neighbor was hurtin’, you help your neighbor.’’
Willie Ray and Together We Achieve are back home in Iowa after donating several hot meals, non-perishables, and toiletries in Louisiana. Other national and local organizations are still accepting donations to help victims of Hurricane Ida. For more information or to make a donation, visit the links below:
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