Muscogee Nation Offers Resources, Financial Aid To Hurricane Ida Victims

The Muscogee Nation is supporting its members who live in Louisiana and were impacted by Hurricane Ida.

"This is the north side of my house, and the tree is in the roof, my house is under there somewhere," Vivian Blackwell-Beaver, Louisiana resident, told News on 6. 

Blackwell showed what is left of her house after Hurricane Ida hit her town of River Ridge, Louisiana. 

"The worst hurricane ever to hit this area. Oh, I just thank God that my husband was not under there and on that side of the house he was in the den. He said when it fell and shook the whole house," Blackwell said. 

Blackwell is one of the Muscogee citizens who applied to get disaster recovery funds from the tribe.  

"Right now, we have six applications that we are responding to. I believe we receive calls from numerous citizens in that area and right now," said Blackwell. 

Miranda Carman runs the tribe's community and human services. She said they're giving families in Louisiana up to $7,500 towards recovery. 

"So, most of them are reaching out for food, water, emergency housing, so we're helping with hotels and making sure that they have a place to stay. They are also requesting generators," Carman said. 

Bobby Howard is the tribe's director of Emergency Management. He said today, the state of Oklahoma asked to use the tribe's buses to transport the Oklahoma National Guard to help with recovery.  

"The nation this morning deployed two of our buses to move 93 soldiers from Norman to Shreveport, Louisiana, where they will then forward deploy into the disaster area to provide security and engineering support," said Howard. 

Blackwell said the tribe is giving her a new generator and over $1,000 to help with repairs. 

"Oh I'm very thankful for them!" Blackwell said. 

You can apply for disaster assistance here.