- - Baton Rouge - - Between August 12 and 14, 2016, southern Louisiana was inundated by 30" of rain. This caused widespread flooding around the Baton Rouge area, from north of the city plus many miles to the east and south. An estimated 117,000 homes were impacted by the waters. This 3rd largest flood in US History was quickly pushed to the back page by the media in favor of live coverage of the Olympics and Presidential primaries. This is now known by many as "The Forgotten Flood."
Some residents were immediately impacted, however others didn't feel the effect until the following day. In the calm of the aftermath, flood waters came up unexpectedly and quickly as the waterways filled up and the rivers literally backed up, giving very little time to react.
Most of the properties flooded were out of any flood zone as waters rose in excess of 20' above flood stage. Understandably, few had flood insurance. The flooding was very widespread from north of the city to the worst areas in the southeast. Brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents were all victims in their separate homes, leaving few places for families to seek shelter. Some people still have no choice but to live in their gutted homes.
Some residents were immediately impacted, however others didn't feel the effect until the following day. In the calm of the aftermath, flood waters came up unexpectedly and quickly as the waterways filled up and the rivers literally backed up, giving very little time to react.
Most of the properties flooded were out of any flood zone as waters rose in excess of 20' above flood stage. Understandably, few had flood insurance. The flooding was very widespread from north of the city to the worst areas in the southeast. Brothers, sisters, parents and grandparents were all victims in their separate homes, leaving few places for families to seek shelter. Some people still have no choice but to live in their gutted homes.
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Thank you to all who donated furnishings, household goods and building supplies and thank you to those who gave of their time to collect and sort donations. Zoar Baptist Church for hosting us, Jim Bender Trucking for transporting the donations and both The Cajun Army and Rebuilding Together Baton Rouge for helping us set up a distribution process. And of course, thank you to the people who supported Hand of Hope Omaha with financial gifts. This all came together because each of us had a part to do and we did it!
Now, let's go do it again!
…. And we DID go back!!!!!!
BATON ROUGE 2018
Trip TWO to Baton Rouge - January 27 to February 3, 2018.
A team of 17 headed back to Baton Rouge to lend a hand in their continuing flood recovery. Our mission was to share the love of Jesus as we assist those with no insurance, the underinsured or possibly scammed by contractors who did not follow through after being paid.
Hand of Hope Omaha connected with our gracious hosts at Zoar Baptist Church, who provided our home away from home, kitchen facilities and a place to rejuvenate each evening. They also fed us a meal of Jambalaya on our arrival, it was wonderful! This year we worked directly with Lucy of Rebuilding Together Baton Rouge who had three in need families lined up for us. Part of the team also assisted the Stevendale Baptist Church which is on a three-year rebuilding plan and the Seafarers’ Center further south in Gonzales. For a second year we did outreach with the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and then assisted on a special project at the University Presbyterian Church on the LSU campus. Baton Rouge still has a great need for volunteers!
BATON ROUGE 2018
Trip TWO to Baton Rouge - January 27 to February 3, 2018.
A team of 17 headed back to Baton Rouge to lend a hand in their continuing flood recovery. Our mission was to share the love of Jesus as we assist those with no insurance, the underinsured or possibly scammed by contractors who did not follow through after being paid.
Hand of Hope Omaha connected with our gracious hosts at Zoar Baptist Church, who provided our home away from home, kitchen facilities and a place to rejuvenate each evening. They also fed us a meal of Jambalaya on our arrival, it was wonderful! This year we worked directly with Lucy of Rebuilding Together Baton Rouge who had three in need families lined up for us. Part of the team also assisted the Stevendale Baptist Church which is on a three-year rebuilding plan and the Seafarers’ Center further south in Gonzales. For a second year we did outreach with the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank and then assisted on a special project at the University Presbyterian Church on the LSU campus. Baton Rouge still has a great need for volunteers!
People really enjoy being part of “food ministry” to the team. Staying at Zoar Baptist Church in Baton Rouge gave us the opportunity to make our meals. Michele did a fantastic job of setting menus and directing her volunteer team, which seemed to grow in numbers every day. We had some great discussions following meals and even had Executive Pastor Byron Cutrer or Westside Church in Omaha spend time and his musical talents with us one day while at Zoar.
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The team worked with Rebuilding Together Baton Rouge which before the flood was focused on assisting people with home modifications so they can stay in them longer, such as installing ramps and handicap updates. The flood broadened their scope of work. We assisted in three projects, building a 56-foot long handicap ramp, reflooring a room and putting in new transition strips for a wheelchair bound gentleman, then loading an entire dumpster with a dilapidated garage that had come down so RTBR could continue rebuilding his new one.
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Stevendale Baptist Church is on a three-year plan to slowly rebuild their flood damaged church and buildings through volunteers of their congregation. They looked at the flood in a positive light for them to refocus and rebuild to serve a wider population. The congregation did not have many who could do the work so the boost provided put them weeks ahead of schedule. It was good to give a renewed energy and hope to the people of the church who were carrying that burden.
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We completed repairs and painted at the Seafarers' Center in Gonzales so they in turn could begin to host AmeriCorps Volunteers who will in turn lead more volunteers. Port Chaplain, Kerry Ash, shared an interesting “I don’t know” story of how the entire building was flooded except the room where the Bibles are stored. How could that happen? “I don’t know.” They have a unique ministry of boarding docked ships from around the world to minister to the crew, sharing bibles translated to their many languages. We were able to share a Spanish version of our Kids Kount Ministries lessons with them, to be passed on and back to families of the sailors.
Outreach was completed with two organizations this year. For the second year we sent volunteers to the Greater Baton Rouge Food Bank. This is one amazing warehouse. One day they were part of a team that separated 20,000 pounds of non-perishable food donations by type and then loaded 2,000 pounds of food into boxes destine for local charities. Another day they helped pack 700 five-pound food bags to be distributed to children through their schools, so they would have healthy food to get through the weekend. The GBRFB packs several thousand of these bags each week so volunteers are critical to people of the city. This is only a part of the 1 million pounds of food this huge warehouse distributes to over 100 charities every month. We had a unique opportunity at University Presbyterian Church on the LSU campus. An employee there had lists of volunteers from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, so some information was near 10 years old. Baton Rouge is hurting so badly for volunteers that they asked for assistance in calling to see if any would consider volunteering in Baton Rouge. Their definition of success was very low, hopeful that maybe just 1 in 100 would commit. After a few days of calling churches and groups, there were three with interest and one group committed to a trip! Rekindling the fire is hard work but the rewards and potential for additional growth is worth the effort. |