An Update From IGA CEO John Ross on Hurricane Helene's Impact

I lived in New Orleans for a number of years, and Houston as a kid. So I am used to hurricanes and the damage they can do. People on the Gulf grow up with the threat; they all know family members who lost everything. One of my wife’s uncles gave us an axe when we first bought our home, to keep in the attic in case the flood water rose so high we had to chop our way out through the roof.

The size and ferocity of Hurricane Helene surprised our country. Towns and communities were wiped out from Florida all the way up through Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky, as the storm wrought havoc on our country in ways that few were expecting.

Now thousands of people in seven states are dealing with an 800-mile path of unprecedented destruction. Over a million people may still be without power, thousands without water. The death toll continues to rise as bodies are uncovered, and we aren’t done yet.

Native New Orleanians will tell you, there is a long-term toll when a storm destroys your community: long after the flood waters recede and the rain stops, people keep dying from a lack of sanitary food and water, lack of quality emergency medical care, overloaded hospitals and, sadly, the psychic toll it takes on people who were already fragile.

The IGA family-owned grocery stores in the storm’s path are dealing with all this, plus the challenge of keeping their stores operating with damaged roads, inconsistent access to power and damaged infrastructure. As a store owner, you may be going into work because your community needs you to be open, even if your own home was flooded or damaged. As a grocery worker, you make be working a register rather than clearing away debris because you know that, without you, thousands of people would have nothing to eat or drink.

Your suppliers are in it as well for the duration. A damaged warehouse or destroyed interstate (parts of I-40 and I-26 won’t be repaired until March of next year!) isn’t an excuse when families need fresh food and water the most. We still have dozens of stores without electricity, some without water, yet we are often the only safe food and bottled water supplier in the community.

I couldn’t be more proud of our store owners, wholesalers, and suppliers who do what we always do: step up, lean in, and serve. Where it is safe to open, our team members are working and trucks are on their way as fast as we can safely get them to where they need to be.

And one small point: the price point for bottled water, food, supplies is the same at IGA today as it was before the storm. As CEO, I don’t have to worry about price gouging – the family owned businesses I am privileged to represent wouldn’t dream of taking advantage of their communities’ misery when they need us most. And from manufacturers, wholesalers ,and the retailers themselves, millions of dollars of free products are moving into the communities that were hardest hit.

I would ask you to keep these heroic IGA associates and our suppliers in your thoughts over the next few weeks. If you would like to help, consider a donation to the American Red Cross.

We are working closely with wholesalers to determine what aid we can provide to stores, and will release more information on fundraising through the IGA Hometown Proud Foundation, which provides financial support for IGA associates in need, in the coming weeks. Look to your email for more information, and please reach out to us if you need assistance.

For those impacted by the storm, please see this emergency preparedness toolkit from NGA, which includes the FEMA needs assessment, resources for coping with disaster, and food safety tips for when you lose power. For the most up-to-date recovery information, please visit https://www.fema.gov/disaster/current/hurricane-helene.

And later, when the storm is a long past and you have a decision about where to shop for groceries, I would ask you to consider supporting the independent retailers in your community instead of a national chain.

*Above photo credit: AP Photo/Mike Stewart