PENSACOLA, Fla. (WKRG) – First Baptist Church of Pensacola welcomed Hurricane Ida evacuees to have dinner with them and join their church service Wednesday night.

Pastor Dave Snyder said his church had $3 million in damage during Hurricane Sally in September 2020.

“This is an opportunity for us to serve those that are going through what we went through almost a year ago,” Snyder said.

Pastor Snyder offered prayer and words of encouragement to Ida evacuees. He knows how it is because he evacuated Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina.

“I was living in Metairie when Katrina hit and my wife and I evacuated and returned to get some belongings but never lived there again,” he said.

Joshua and Courtney Bordelon and their two sons are from St. Charles Parish. They enjoyed a meal along with other evacuees and the church congregation.

“We’re just blessed to be here,” Courtney said. “We don’t know when we’re gonna be able to go back home so this is our new temporary home for now.”

They left Friday and went to Houston. They returned to their house Monday. Their home and so many others in their neighborhood were damaged and are now unlivable.

“Just destruction everywhere..roads are blocked off,” Courtney said.

They had to sleep in their car that night then their insurance company sent them here but before that, they struggled to find gas.

“We were out of gas,” she said. “People around us were out of gas and we sat in the parking lot of the RaceTrac for seven hours.”

The church also sent evacuees home with bags of food.

The Bordelons say they have a hotel room in Gulf Breeze for the next two weeks but they aren’t sure yet what they’ll do after that. They say it’s too hot and humid to do any cleanup back home right now.