Volunteers From Around The Country Come To Help Flood Victims Rebuild

Volunteers from around the country have come to Louisiana to offer assistance to flood victims trying to rebuild their homes. Samaritan’s Purse, a volunteer group out of North Carolina, has set up disaster relief units in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. 

Spokesperson Todd Taylor says if you are in need of help or want to donate your time, visit Samartianspurse.org or call (985) 402-4350 in Baton Rouge.

“We’re working with local churches across the area, as well as, bringing in volunteers from across the nation to help people go into their homes, remove the contents, remove the sheet rock.”

To contact Samaritan’s Purse in Lafayette, call (337) 349-5130. Taylor says the organization will be in Baton Rouge for 12 weeks and 10 weeks in Lafayette and they’re in great need of more volunteers. He says currently, the group is focusing on just the cleanup.

“We’re happy to help them get everything cleaned up, all the nails pulled out the sheetrock, the floors pulled up, and we do the first round of mold suppression treatments.”

Samaritan’s Purse was in north Louisiana earlier in the year to help with flooding and had a five year presence in the state after Hurricane Katrina. Taylor says all the services are free and the organization is funded through private donations. He says volunteers have been out working already and the damage is overwhelming.

“We were in a home, had over seven feet of water in it. The elderly couple that lives there, he’d lived there his entire life, he’s never seen anything like this before. He’s completely devastated. We just hear that story every house that we go to.”