Wagoner County Emergency Management Team Returns Home After Helping In Louisiana

The Wagoner County Emergency Management Director Heath Underwood said it was a tough ten days, but they were proud to be part of the group of Oklahomans helping those in need.

A group of eight men with the Wagoner County Emergency Management team spent the past ten days in Louisiana helping people who have been impacted by Hurricane Ida. 

"You're away, you're working some very long hours on the road, and a hurricane is a different thing to look at, it's nothing like a tornado," Underwood said. 

Underwood said they were stationed in Monroe, Louisiana, working at a shelter for evacuees from south Louisiana who had lost everything. 

"The people that we had pretty much lost everything, they don't have nothing to go back to. They are still in the shelter to this day, we finally got them transferred closer to home," he said. 

Underwood said they were able to come home after finding a new shelter for all the evacuees closer to their hometowns.

"Made a lot of friends with some of the residents that was there, it was hard shipping them off yesterday," he said. 

Underwood said they are happy to be home, but learned a lot while they were gone and are proud they represented Oklahoma.

"We're always glad to go help because one day we might need it, so we always like to go help and be a part of the Oklahoma team that goes up," he said.