BY THE NUMBERS — Red Cross Response To Acadiana Flooding

With the amount of destruction in our part of the state, I think it is important to keep perspective. How do you understand the impact of what happened here, because it hasn’t happened in most of our lifetimes?

Board members of the Acadiana Chapter of the American Red Cross met at the Heymann Center shelter in Lafayette to game plan on the continued recovery.

The Acadiana Red Cross has launched a full-scale response in our area that began at 10:00 am last Friday morning. That was only hours after floodwaters started to rise unexpectedly after a long night of heavy rain in Lafayette, St. Martin and Iberia Parishes. The rest of the Acadiana wasn’t spared on day two with St. Landry, Acadia, Vermilion, St. Mary and Jeff Davis Parish getting pounded.

BY THE NUMBERS

$30 Million -- The dollar amount the Red Cross is projecting due to this flood in the Capital-West region that extends from Baton Rouge to East Texas.

1,500 -- The number of Red Cross staffers from across the country who are on the ground in the Acadiana and Baton Rouge disaster areas.

$1,300 -- The average cost of an 11 day deployment for each of these Red Cross workers working response efforts in our area.

60,000 -- Number of meal being served per day in Red Cross Shelters.

HOW TO HELP

Donate funds to the Red Cross by visiting redcross.org/donate.

Text "LAFLOODS" to 90999 for an automatic $10 donation to be made.

Donate clothes, household and personal care items at the United Way building in Lafayette at 215 E Pinhook Rd.

Donate non-perishable food items through FoodNet. These donations can also be dropped off at the United Way building in Lafayette.

The United Way of Acadiana is serving as a bulk distribution center and helping fulfill the needs of the Red Cross shelters in the Acadiana area.