RETRANSMISSION TO CORRECT SPELLING OF SURNAME TO HEBERT - Homeless couple Angelique Hebert, and husband Wilfred Hebert, ask for help on a sidewalk as they try to recover from the effects of Hurricane Ida Tuesday, August 31, 2021, in Houma, Louisiana. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
With Hurricane Ida's winds screaming and only a tent and tarp for shelter, Angelique Hebert clung to her husband under a bridge where the couple had sought refuge.
“We're gonna die in this hurricane,” Angelique told him. But he said: “Just hang on, baby. It's gonna be over.”
So she hung on, and she prayed.
It wasn’t that the couple wanted to ride out a major hurricane exposed to the elements. Homeless and with few options in the bayous and small communities of southern Louisiana, they said they simply couldn’t afford to get out of Ida's path. With no car, they walked more than 15 miles (24 kilometres) from the coastal hamlet of Montegut to Houma to try to catch an evacuation bus. They missed it.
Despite mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders in south Louisiana parishes, many residents who wanted to flee were left to fend for themselves as the fifth-strongest hurricane to ever hit the U.S. mainland ravaged Louisiana. For homeless people, those on fixed or low incomes, and others in the state's most vulnerable groups, staying wasn't a matter of choice — it was the only choice.
“People will say, 'Well, I’m just going to ride it out,'” said Craig Colten, a professor emeritus at Louisiana State...
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