Podcast Response as Hurricane Ida Makes Landfall

Hurricane Ida Track from Hurricanes.gov — Track image from Hurricanes.gov

The eye of Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana earlier this afternoon CST (Sunday August 29, 2021). The Disaster Podcast Team pulls together our weather and emergency preparedness experts (Dan and Becky DePodwin respectively) to give their impressions of impacts on the ground as Ida continues moving northward towards the Mississippi/Louisiana border.

At landfall, the hurricane was a strong category 4 with sustained winds around 150 miles per hour (240 kph). It is creeping northward at only 10 miles per hour giving the sustained hurricane force winds and torrential rains continued opportunities to damage property and injure those who did not heed mandatory evacuation orders.

Dr. Joe Holley shares his knowledge about FEMA preparedness and staging efforts prior to the passage of the storm. He talks about resources being ready to respond as soon as it is safe to come out of shelter and seek those in need of assistance and rescue. FEMA has over 100 ambulances and crews from other states staged to come in and assist local first responders with rescue and transport efforts.

Here’s an article by Becky DePodwin on Hurricane Preparedness via her linkedin profile.

Also on the show were co-hosts Sam Bradley and Jamie Davis.

Paragon Brings “The Experience”

Paragon Medical Education Group specializes in bringing what they call “The Experience” to jurisdictions around the country. They bring together police, fire, EMS, and hospital teams to train together and learn what to expect from each diverse group in the response team so that each knows what to expect from the other and how to back the other groups up. Visit Paragon’s site at ParagonMedicalGroup.com for more information on how this can be brought into your system.