SCHRIEVER — Hurricane Ida damaged much of southern Louisiana, but that is not keeping those affected from helping one another.
On Tuesday, KATC visited the Oak Ridge community in Schriever where Ida left her mark -- fallen trees, down power lines, and shingles torn from roofs -- leaving the intersection of Quiet Oak and Gentle Oak anything but.
Parker Habert is a resident of Thibodaux and growing up in the area, he said his family typically hunkers down when a hurricane comes to town. With Ida, Habert said things turned out differently than expected -- which led his family to a big job.
19-year-old Habert, his brother Reid (17), and his cousin Thade (15) had already spent 5 hours working to remove debris from not only their grandparents' yard in Oak Ridge but the surrounding lots when KATC spoke with them.
"Crack of dawn we wake up and, you know, there’s a lot of work to do," Habert said. "(...) All of this we were doing with an ax and everything and that ax just broke right now so we are kinda up shh creek right now."
Teresa Noel is a neighbor to the Haberts. Hurricane Ida caused four large trees to fall within her own yard. A resident of Oak Ridge for what she called "quite some time," she told KATC that she is grateful there wasn't more damage to her residence like other nearby communities experienced -- specifically Houma. More concerned for those in that area, she said she hopes her church can soon lend a helping hand.
"We're praying for them, as much as we can," Noel said. "Right now we can't get out too much until the lines are picked up."
Thade Haddox lives in Houma, but was in Schriever lending a hand with clean-up.
Just 15 years old, he said that when hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit, he wasn't born yet. Haddox said that Ida appeared to be just as catastrophic, if not more and that his family decided to ride out this weekend's hurricane anyway.
"Houses collapsing, floods, it was just a complete nightmare," Haddox said. "We was scared, but we fought through in the end and got out perfectly fine."
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