Neighbors Helping Neighbors Across the Pelican State

Community volunteers come together to assist the flood survivors at the St. Amant Church in Ascension Parish, La on Saturday, August 20, 2016.

One of the things we see most often after disasters is the concept of "neighbors helping neighbors"—where communities come together to help each other through. This round of flooding in Louisiana has shown us nearly countless instances of this; from children helping to supply lunches for first responders and survivors, to athletes from colleges and professional teams volunteering around their adopted communities.

It's been a truly wide-spread humanitarian effort, and one that we've been astounded, humbled, and inspired by.

Here's a quick breakdown of just some of the great things we've been seeing:

Red Cross has worked to serve over 250,000 meals and snacks to survivors.

Team Rubicon has started their mucking and gutting operation (called Operation Geaux Big) in the Baton Rouge area.

Tide's Loads of Hope is providing a free laundry service--including washing, drying, and folding--to survivors to help them find a little bit of normalcy.

Duracell's PowerForward teams are going through neighborhoods affected and providing free batteries and charges to phones.

Salvation Army and their Emergency Disaster Services section have deployed mobile feeding trucks to help serve meals, drinks, and snacks affected by the flooding. One of the most touching stories to come out of that comes from a volunteer named Tim, who despite not having much, gives what he has--his time--to help others.

The ASPCA is working with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry to help rescue a large number of animals that have been displaced by the flooding.

Walmart and the Walmart Foundation have contributed $500,000 toward the relief effort.

Athletes from Louisiana State University's teams--from football to gymnastics--went into affected communities and helped muck out homes that were inundated with water.

The New Orleans Saints are hosting donation drives at their open practices during training camp this week to help. Employees from both the Saints and the New Orleans Pelicans (the NBA team) have volunteered to help clean out homes.

Like I said before this is a quick breakdown of just some of the inspiring things we’ve seen.

If you would like to help, check out VolunteerLouisiana.gov, where they've outlined trusted organizations to donate your money or time to and, as always, please pass this information on to those who could use it.

It's a true neighbors-helping-neighbors effort. In areas that have seen relentless rains and powerful flooding, like Louisiana, it's all about looking out for each other.

 

Editor’s Note:  The resources discussed are for informational purposes only and FEMA does not endorse any product or company

Original author: jessica.stapf
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