Team Members Support Each Other During Hurricane Ida

The landfall of Hurricane Ida devastated southern Louisiana on Sunday, with more heavy storms and flooding happening throughout the week.

Dozens of Louisiana TravelCenters of America team members were impacted by the storm surge, with the Petro in Hammond (I-12, exit 40 at Hwy 51) and the TA in Slidell (I-10, exit 266) experiencing power outages and other wind and water damage.

“It takes very special people to come to work worried about our guests and their teammates when their homes could potentially be flooded or damaged,” said Skip McGary, Regional Vice President, Operations (Central). “Our extraordinary team members were willing to go above and beyond, stay long hours at the travel centers and volunteer to work so their peers could get their families out of harm’s way.”

TA Slidell was without power for several hours and received extensive damage to the back part of the building. Site General Manager Joni Baker, Profit Center Manager Nature Flores and cashiers Skye Lange and Cindy Lasher stayed 36 hours at Slidell from the time the storm started and through the
power outage.

“I would NEVER leave my people without somewhere to go. The majority of my team had a safe place to stay, but some didn’t know if they were going to have homes to go back to. Our team members felt safe here,” said Site General Manager Joni Baker. “I wanted to keep them safe and make sure our property was safe. My people are troopers. They worked their tails off through this.”

Petro Hammond has been out of power since Sunday. Fuel Profit Center Manager Stacy Smith, FMT Saul Vining, Porter Dustin Johnson elected to stay at Hammond during the storm to make sure our property was safe.

According to District Manager Randy Salmeron, team members went above and beyond. He said, “Everyone is so brave and supportive of the company. They did everything they could to make sure we could stay open as long as possible.”

The teams will continue cleanup efforts in the weeks ahead.