Samendra Sherchan, associate professor of environmental health sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, will lead a team collecting water samples at more than 150 sites in Houma, LaPlace, Slidell and other areas at different time intervals during the next 6 months to gain a better understanding of the impacts of extreme flooding on water quality and the mobilization of contaminants in coastal groundwater systems. Ida made landfall as a Category 4 storm near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on August 29, bringing coastal storm surges, heavy rainfall and catastrophic flooding in many rural areas in Southern Louisiana.