Bend woman on road trip across America stops to help Hurricane Ida victims

Stephanie Roderick, Jeep Girls Connect donate much-needed items to storm victims in Louisiana

CHAUVIN, La. (KTVZ) -- What was supposed to be a Bend woman's road trip to meet friends across the country turned into a mission to help some of the many peopled affected by Hurricane Ida.

On the next to last day of August, Stephanie Roderick set out on her 'Jeep Girls Connect America Event' to meet up with other women in the Facebook group. When she got to Louisiana and saw the damage left behind, she knew what she had to do.

“I couldn’t believe it," Roderick told NewsChannel 21 Thursday. “Poles were down everywhere. There houses were completely destroyed.”

Roderick found herself in the Terrebonne Parish, about an hour southwest of New Orleans.

“They had seen no help. Nothing from FEMA -- nothing, or from the National Guard,” Roderick said.

Roderick and some of the Jeep Girls Connect women collected food, water and house supplies for six families who lost their homes.

"They are resilient folks down there, and you have to commend them," she said.