HOUMA, La. — At the Houma Terrebonne Civic Center, the moving, unloading and distributing hasn’t stopped in a month.
As Ida tore through the bayou on Aug. 29, Roddy Lerille found himself in charge at the Houma-Terrebonne Civic Center.
He was tasked with organizing one of the biggest distribution centers in the parish, with no disaster experience, damage to his own home and things at the civic center looking less than ideal.
“I think today’s day 32,” said Lerille, who usually works as the Director of Parks and Recreation in Terrebonne Parish.
“We lost power, we lost our generator, we have no running water, and we have all these things going on where we’re trying to distribute all the commodities to the people," he said. "And there was really no direction.”
What he didn’t expect is for that direction to have come from an Army Veteran from Virginia Beach.
Jimmy Germany just showed up the morning after the storm.
“The first person I walked into was Roddy,” Germany said. “And I was like hey, I’m here to help.”
“He was like, 'OK, you’re with me.'”
Germany has no ties to Houma. He was watching news coverage of Hurricane Ida at his home in Virginia, when he grabbed a duffel bag and said to his wife:
“I kinda was like, ‘hey honey, I’m leaving’. ‘Where you going?’ ‘Uh, I’m going to Louisiana,'” he laughed.
Germany drove almost 1,200 straight miles to Louisiana as Ida was tearing it apart. For five days, Germany and Lerille became a distribution dream team. They worked 18-20 hour days, they said, alongside Civic Center Operations Manager Peter Dominique.
“It’s just amazing to see people come together,” Dominique said.
With no cell service, no radios, no electricity, and evacuees in the lobby, they unloaded dozens of supply trucks and 18-wheelers. They got supplies to smaller distribution points across the struggling bayou.
“I just kept thinking about all the people that we helped. Just the people. You know, that we were able to get food and water to. You know, Ice, tarps,” Lerille said.
Jimmy said he has no real reason why he came to Houma, but for those five days he knew he was making a difference.
“I don’t have an exact answer. I wanted to do it,” he said over Zoom, wiping tears from his eyes.
“I got a whole lot of out of it, though. A whole lot out of it. I felt sad that I was leaving. And just sad that I was leaving Roddy. So I told him when I left, I was like, 'I don’t know when I’ll be back, how long It’ll be, but we’ll be back,'” Germany said.
Through crisis and through chaos, humanity shines. And sometimes, it forges friendships in the most unlikely of times.
“When he left here I think he and I both cried,” Lerille said. “One hell of a guy, that’s all I can say.”