STATEMENT
The Red, Black & Green New Deal and the Movement for Black Lives are in solidarity with the Gulf South as they survive, recover, and rebuild from Hurricane Ida.
Hurricane Ida is a sobering reminder that the climate crisis is not coming—it is here. Ida made landfall on August 29th, the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina; it unleashed unrelenting wind, rain, and flooding across the Gulf South, including Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. Just shy of a category 5 storm rating, Ida is one of the strongest hurricanes to hit the region in the last 160 years. The 150-mph winds knocked out power for at least a million people across Louisiana and Mississippi, tore roofs off buildings, left entire parishes underwater, reversed the flow of the Mississippi River, and displaced countless people.
SUPPORT RELIEF EFFORTS NOW. DONATE TO OUR LIST OF TRUSTED ORGANIZATIONS IN THE HARDEST-HIT AREAS.
Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition (MS):
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mississippirapidresponsecoalition
Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy (LA):
www.GCCLP.org
United Houma Nation (LA):
https://unitedhoumanation.org
MS Poor People’s Campaign/Mississippi Prison Reform Coalition (MS):
https://www.peoplesadvocacyinstitute.com/mississippi-prison-reform-coalition
People’s Advocacy Institute (MS):
https://www.peoplesadvocacyinstitute.com
The Smile Trust (LA, AL, MS):
https://mthsmile.com/
MS Moves (MS):
https://msmove.org/index.html
Pickles and Popsicles Inc. (MS):
https://www.picklesnpopsicles.com
The Ordinary People Society (AL):
https://www.wearetops.org
ALLIANCE FOR AFFORDABLE ENERGY (LA):
https://www.all4energy.org/
BYP 100 (MS):
https://secure.actblue.com/donate/byp100-1
The Lower 9th Ward CSED (LA):
http://sustainthenine.org/
Healthy Gulf (FL, AL, MS, LA, TX):
https://www.healthygulf.org/
Housing NOLA (LA):
https://www.housingnola.org/main/home
Imagine Water Works (LA):
https://www.imaginewaterworks.org/
Alternate ROOTs (GA):
https://alternateroots.org/
Southern Organizing Academy:
https://www.southernorganizer.org/donate
ReThink:
http://www.therethinkers.org/
As climate-justice organizers in M4BL affiliate groups like the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (GCCLP) remind us, these extreme weather disasters are not natural, organic, or inevitable. They are a result of slack government policies and unchecked corporate practices that have created a climate crisis, in which the intensity of global warming exacerbates weather conditions beyond what would otherwise occur. Climate change amplifies the damage done by hurricanes by increasing the likelihood of rapid intensification from warmer seas, supercharging the storms with water and rainfall, and extending the reach of storm surge due to the rise in sea level. Despite the urgency this should invoke, our local and federal governments continue to fail our communities’ needs by ignoring the reality of the climate crisis.
It’s unclear when evacuees will be able to return home, and even more unclear how long recovery will take for those who decided to ride out the storm. Water rescues continue; some homes are completely destroyed; there’s little to no access to food, gas, or power; and hospitals are unprepared for incoming patients from the storm as they remain full due to the ongoing Covid crisis.
While the devastation wrought by Ida is still being assessed, and loss and harm will be felt across the board, we know that poor communities, Black communities, and communities of color are the ones that will be hit hardest by the blunt force and trauma of yet another disaster. We send our love and condolences to communities in the path of the hurricane. We also vividly remember the inexcusable suffering, bureaucratic incompetence, and abandonment of the victims and survivors that occurred in the wake of Katrina; thus, we demand that local and federal governments do everything within their power to provide aid, resources, and refuge, and in no way militarize the situation or criminalize victims and survivors of the storm.
We pledge to continue to monitor, speak out, and be in principled solidarity with our family in the Gulf South. We are with our people in the region through the darkness of this storm. We will be there for you in the coming days.
Those who want to donate directly to GCCLP’s relief effort, visit https://bit.ly/StormReliefFund. If you want to donate material contributions through them—diapers, pampers, feminine products, food, water, solar generators, etc.—please contact Anthony Giancatarino at anthony@gcclp.org
In Power,
The Movement for Black Lives
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The Movement for Black Lives is a national network of more than 150 leaders and organizations creating a broad political home for Black people to learn, organize and take action. M4BL includes activists, organizers, academics, lawyers, educators, health workers, artists and more, all unified in a radical vision for Black liberation and working for equity, justice and healing.
