Family waits in SWFL for power to return in Louisiana town

Thousands of families have been forced to rebuild their lives after the destruction of Hurricane Ida ripped through Louisiana. A family we spoke to says the aftermath is worse than what they saw during Hurricane Katrina. Hundreds of thousands of people are still in the dark.

We spoke to the Kramer family, who share their story of how they made it out alive from Hurricane Ida in Louisiana to safety in Southwest Florida.

Patricia and Gene Kramer and their son, Darren, rode out Hurricane Ida in their home in the small town of Houma, Louisiana, as 150 mph winds whipped around them.

“You could see the wind coming in,” Patricia said. “And all of a sudden, this huge gust would come in. I was like, ‘Oh, my God; close that door.’”

Patricia is no stranger to hurricanes. She’s worked with American Red Cross for 25 years and went to Mississippi to help after Katrina.

“I thought Katrina was the worst I had ever seen in Biloxi,” Patricia said. “But to see this here, and the devastation created.”

It’s devastation the Kramers had to leave recently. They couldn’t stay without power, and they don’t know what that will be restored. But when it is, they’ll return to the devastation and return to a place they say won’t feel like home.

“I’m almost crying now talking to you,” Patricia said. “I used to put that behind me and just go in that cleanup mode or that disaster mode, you know, but it’s, it’s just a very emotional thing.”

The sad part was that everything that we’re going to go back home to, all these historical houses,” Darren said. “They’re gone … in the downtown area. It makes you like know that you’re not gonna even be able to come back home to what you, you know, are proud of, any of your history.”

The Kramers plan to help rewrite history of their hometown as soon as they can get there.