Lowe’s employees in Jacksonville volunteering to help victims affected by Hurricane Ida

The governors of New York and New Jersey have declared a national emergency because of the impacts of Hurricane Ida.

Ida has caused flash flooding up north that’s responsible for at least nine dead.

Our local community is stepping up to help.

Nearly two dozen Lowe’s employees from across northeast Florida packed up their bags and headed out to Louisiana Thursday morning to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

“We’re going to help move freight that the community needs to get back to their normal life, generators, buckets, mops, brooms, bleach, the whole none,” Tony Jones, a West Jacksonville Lowe’s employee, said.

The group packed up two vans with supplies these men and women may need.

“We know that it’s going to be a challenge to find some open restaurants so we’re going to take a little bit stuff with us just to keep our energy levels up,” Jones said.

A Lowe’s spokesperson told me that each person will mask up and be required to do daily temperature checks to make sure everyone stays safe during the pandemic.

The crew that left is part of the Lowe’s emergency response team.

They’ll be gone for two weeks and when they return on September 16th, another wave of Lowe’s employee will deploy to help with the disaster relief.

These employees volunteered to leave their stores and families behind to help with the hardest-hit areas.

Ida made landfall as a category 4 hurricane on Sunday, bringing with it powerful wind and storm surge.

“They’re dealing with the loss of power, food, flooding. There’s a lot of things they’re dealing with if we can help them out a little bit that would great,” Joseph Kimmel, a Lowe’s associate at the River City Market Place, said.

Kimmel and Jones are also putting their former military training to the test to help as many people as they can.

“I’m a Navy vet. I was on submarines and nuclear training facilities,” Kimmel said.

“It’s going to be a lot of work. It’s going to be some hard work and long hours, but they send the right team to go do that,” Jones said.

Lowe’s told us more than 200 associates from Lowe’s stores across the southeast region are headed to Louisiana Thursday.

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