Disaster Justice Network

At the height of the COVID 19 pandemic, southwest Louisiana was struck dramatically in 2020 and 2021 by four weather crises that had a cascading quality: Hurricanes Laura and Delta, a winter severe freeze, and a spring flood. While the southwest Louisiana communities were immersed in the initial recovery efforts from each of these events, resources for recovery were incredibly difficult to secure due to the pandemic precautions.

The day Hurricane Laura hit Louisiana, Julie Maldonado (Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network) and Kristina Peterson (Lowlander Center), knowing the severity of the storm and the extreme lack of resources, immediately formed the Disaster Justice Network (DJN) to respond to these cascading crises by bringing together their collective networks of partners to support overlooked communities, struggling from so many crises at once. 

From the start, DJN’s networks of support ensured all would have their voice in the recovery process and created new networks for care and mutual aid practices. These networks were urgently needed, as a year later, Category 4 Hurricane Ida directly hit south, central coastal Lafourche and Terrebonne Parishes in August 2021. The challenges of recovery from such a "comprehensive" set of crises revealed the shortfall of human and organizational resources if each recovery specialty is recruited and targeted independently for only one aspect of the recovery of each disaster in isolation.