Carnival Charters Cruise Ship to FEMA and New Orleans to Provide Housing for Storm Responders

Carnival Cruise Line has announced an agreement to chartered its ship Carnival Glory to the city of New Orleans and FEMA to provide housing for first responders in the aftermath of Hurricane Ida.

Carnival Glory arrived at the Port of New Orleans on Friday and underwent a required U.S. Coast Guard inspection ahead of starting its official duties. The ship has now begun provisioning food, water and materials to prepare for up to 2,600 hospital workers, first responders, city and utility workers and other emergency personnel to join the ship.

Carnival Glory is planned to stay in port through September 18 to serve as emergency housing for frontline workers directly involved in the city’s infrastructure recovery and healthcare needs.

Related to the announcement, Carnival said it will cancel Glory’s cruise scheduled to depart on Sept. 12 and will plan to restart its guest operations with Carnival Glory from New Orleans on Sunday, Sept. 19. Carnival had already cancelled the Sept. 5 departure for Carnival Glory.

“While we want to provide the city of New Orleans with an economic boost by restarting guest operations, we want to first provide this critical housing support to address emergency needs and to get power restored to the region,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “We appreciate the understanding of our guests, who we know love New Orleans as much as we do.”

“Port NOLA appreciates Carnival’s deployment of Carnival Glory to New Orleans,” added Brandy D. Christian, President and CEO of Port NOLA and CEO of the New Orleans Public Belt Railroad. “Her berths will accommodate the hardworking first responders and essential personnel working on storm recovery efforts in our region. Port NOLA, our Federal, state, and local partner agencies all support those who are quickly restoring critical infrastructure in the city and helping to get cargo moving again.”