Girl power: Sister-Corps arrives to help Ida victims

Once more, Morgan City is a staging area and a place to stay for people helping Houma- and Dulac-area people recover from Hurricane Ida. But this group of 46 relief workers, who have been living at Lake End Park cabins since Monday, is different.

The group is composed entirely of women. And they are, in a phrase from a gentler time, of a certain age.

They range from 45 to 81. More than half are in their mid-60s or older. They come from 17 states.

And they didn't arrive with tea cups and coffee cake. These women shore up damaged roofs, move pieces of felled trees, work with plywood and drywall, remove debris, and demolish damaged sheds. In a less gentle time, it would have been called a man's job.

"I'm pretty sure it rocks their world when we arrive," said Leeann Moore of west Texas while dinner was being cooked Wednesday evening at Lake End. "I'm pretty sure we shock some people when we come up with our chainsaws and circular saws."

They are members of the Sister-Corps, an offshoot of Sisters on the Fly, which bills itself as the nation's largest outdoors group for women with 20,000 members.

Moore is the Sister-Corps president, and Sherry R. Gibbons is vice president. Gibbons is from Houston and "yeah, I've seen hurricanes," she said

One of those hurricanes was Harvey in 2017. The storm caused extensive damage at Port Aransas, Texas, a favorite fishing spot for Sisters on the Fly members.

"We felt compelled to just get in our trucks and go," Moore said.

Their work to help storm victims "was life-changing," Moore said. "The phrase is used a lot, but it really was."

Nearly five years later, Hurricane Ida is the Sister-Corps' 27th project. This marks the second trip to Louisiana after 2020's hurricane relief work in Iowa and Lake Charles. Next month, the Sister-Corps will be in Kentucky to help victims of a string of deadly mid-winter tornadoes.

They don't just hop in trucks and take off anymore. Each Sister-Corps relief squad travels with a medical team and meal team. Two-thirds of the relief teams are women on their first mission.

"Once they go," Moore said, "they're coming back."

"Members provide boots on the ground for short-term relief to communities in need and ongoing special efforts such as blood drives, clean-up, card campaigns, and donations to women’s shelters," said a Sisters-Corps press release.

The release said leads come many sources. In Houma's case, several leads came from Lanor Curole, tribal administrator of the United Houma Nation.

“We are amazed at how much devastation there still is after this much time, how much more needs to be done, and how all of these people are living in the devastation," said members of Valerie Shows' team in the press release. "Their resilience is amazing.”

The day begins with a breakfast meeting at 7 a.m. Team members work until 4:30 p.m., and gather at dinner to talk about their experiences that day.

Wednesday's dinner was called a "SELA-bration," for southeast Louisiana. Jen Ehrhardt got in the spirit by wearing a tutu over her jeans and a hard hit decorated with glitter.

"It's the goofiest part of what we do," Ehrhardt said. "We normally say it's hard work."

Ehrhardt, who lives in Pensacola, Florida, got involved after Hurricane Sally struck the Panhandle and Sister-Corps members went to Marianna.

Wednesday's dinner was attended by Morgan City Councilmen Lou Tamporello, Steve Domangue and Tim Hymel and Park Manager Kevin Chauvin.

“Sister-Corps is an amazing group of ladies who are providing a tremendous service to people in need," Tamporello said for the press release. "Their
organization, skills and energy are something to witness.”

For Moore, working with Sister-Corps offers a sense of empowerment for women and for people who have reached or passed middle age.

And people who suffer after disasters receive help.

“We like to serve the people who don’t have the insurance,” Moore said. “They don’t have the personal strength to endure. They don’t have the voice.”

You can learn more at sister-corps.com.

"Sister-Corps members volunteer and provide their own transportation to the location, lodging, and meals, so all donations go directly towards serving
homeowners in the community they are deployed to," the press release said.