COLUMBUS, Ohio — Hurricane Ida made landfall Sunday as a Category 4 storm.
The storm hit the shores of the Gulf Coast as one of the most powerful storms to ever hit U.S. shores with winds up to 150 mph.
Some Ohioans have already rushed down to the gulf coast to help.
About two hours west of New Orleans in Lafayette, is where Craig Mignogno with Ohio Task Force 1 is stationed.
"We had driven straight through over Friday night into Saturday. Everything’s different from storm to storm,” he said.
Mignogno is one of 40 members of the Ohio Task Force 1 that's in Louisiana. The Category 4 hurricane hasn't hit where he is yet when we talked to him Sunday evening.
"A lot of our vehicles are out here we have pickup trucks that haul some of our trailers with our ATV's and our boats. And over my shoulder this way is some of our box trucks. And then we have about three 50ft semi-trucks that are back here,” Mignogno said.
The Task Force could be used for flooding assistance, evacuation, wide-area search from the trucks or mappings of damage in the area.
The Central and Southern Ohio Region of the Red Cross has sent volunteers down south as well.
"We have over 600 volunteers that are either on the ground right now working in the evacuation shelters or we have people positioned outskirts of the damage area,” Marita Salkowski with Ohio Red Cross said.
Volunteers are working to open dozens of shelters supporting nearly 10,000 people, as well blankets, cots and thousands of ready-to-eat meals.
Hurricane Ida hits on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a disaster many still haven't recovered from.
For Mignogno and many others, every second counts.
"It's challenging work. We're just waiting to see what the storm does and waiting to see what kind of missions we'll get assigned,” he said.
The Red Cross sent a response vehicle Sunday morning bringing additional supplies.
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