The Red Cross Louisiana Region maintains one of the largest pre-positioned disaster response infrastructures of any state chapter, built for a state that has taken major hurricane landfalls from Katrina in 2005 through Laura and Ida in 2020 and 2021. If you need disaster assistance in Louisiana, call 1-800-RED-CROSS. This page explains the region's work and the practical ways to support it.
Louisiana's hurricane history reads like a disaster response syllabus: Katrina (2005), Gustav (2008), Ike (2008), Isaac (2012), Laura (2020), Ida (2021), and plenty of storms in between. That record is why the Red Cross keeps supplies, shelter capacity, and response plans pre-positioned here rather than shipping them in after landfall.
The response doesn't end when the wind stops. After Ida, Red Cross teams operated in Louisiana for months, running shelters, serving food, and providing recovery case management in communities along the I-10 corridor. Long-tail recovery work of that kind is a defining feature of how this region operates.
Blood collected in Louisiana supports Ochsner Health, LCMC Health, Willis-Knighton in Shreveport, and other hospital systems around the state. Steady donations between hurricane seasons matter as much as surge donations after a storm, since hospital demand never pauses.
Find a drive or donor center through redcrossblood.org, or schedule by phone at 1-800-RED-CROSS.
Money is the most useful donation before and after a storm; it funds shelters, food, and case management without the sorting and trucking burden that donated goods create. Give at redcross.org.
Volunteers are the other half of the operation. Trained Red Cross volunteers staff shelters, distribute supplies, and walk families through recovery casework, and in a state with Louisiana's storm calendar, local volunteers get used often. Home fires also remain a year-round response need across the state, independent of hurricane season.
Storms attract copycat charities, so verify before you give: look the organization up in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, review Charity Navigator, and keep the written acknowledgment for any gift of $250 or more.
Sources: American Red Cross — Louisiana Region official site (redcross.org); our Louisiana charity guide research. Retrieved July 2026. We are not affiliated with American Red Cross — Louisiana Region and receive no compensation for this listing. Spotted an error? [email protected]
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