Hurricane Laura Response

Power lines hang over a street in Lake Charles, Louisiana | Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Hurricane Laura, Category 4, slammed Louisiana on in the early hours of Thursday, August 27. While the full extent of damage isn’t yet known, preliminary estimates indicate that thousands of homes could either be destroyed or have major damage across Louisiana and Texas. Some areas are still unreachable, heavy debris is still blocking some roads, and more than 272,000 households are still without power. For some it could be weeks before power is fully restored. People are facing high temperatures and some have seen their homes destroyed after being out of work for months due to COVID-19.

We encourage you to learn about and donate to many worthy organizations providing emergency relief to those impacted by Hurricane Laura. The list below will be updated to reflect additional organizations and resources being made available.

• The American Red Cross is providing emergency shelters, supplies and vehicles and mobilizing thousands of disaster workers in communities affected by the storm. The organization is also requesting urgent blood donations in an effort to meet critical need.
• Team Rubicon is providing rescue and recovery equipment in communities along the coast to assist with response efforts.
• World Central Kitchen is providing nutritious meals to evacuated families in shelters and in the community.
• Operation USA is assisting with damage assessment and working with community-based organizations to offer support to affected communities.

When supporting relief organizations, consider marking your gift as general operating support. By doing so, you enable the organization to both respond to current disasters and be prepared for those that may arise in the future. Visit CCF’s disaster giving page for more tips on how to maximize your impact when giving to disaster relief.

Contributions to the California Community Foundation represent irrevocable gifts subject to the legal and fiduciary control of the foundation’s board of directors. This charge will appear on your credit card statement as a payment to “Calif Comm Fdn – CCF”. In addition, California Community Foundation incurs a third-party administrative fee of 2.7 percent for credit card contributions. The foundation will charge the fee directly to the individual fund.