No cash or gas to run from Ida: ‘We can’t afford to leave’

By LEAH WILLINGHAM
Associated Press/Report for America

Robert Owens felt defeated and helpless Sunday as he waited for one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the U.S. to approach Louisiana’s capital city. The 27-year-old had spent days anxiously watching long lines of cars flee Baton Rouge away from oncoming Hurricane Ida. He hoped he and his wife, his mother-in-law, roommate and four pets would be among them. But they lacked gas and money for a hotel room — like others in their low-income neighborhood. By Sunday night, Owens said his neighborhood had lost power, the sky lighting green from transformers blowing up. He called it a terrifying feeling being hunkered down in a storm.