The first phase of clean up after the Louisiana flood is well underway. I touched base with numerous churches and organizations in the effected region this week and while thousands of volunteers have boots on the ground, the biggest need right now is people. The next few weeks will focus on mud out.
Believe it or not, thousands of homes have already been gutted and are drying out. Drive down almost any street in the effected areas and piles of debris line the sidewalks, but then, if you look, there sits a house here and a house there and two more over on the next block, and a few on that street over there, and on, and on… that have no debris outside. This means the folks living in the home are either out helping someone else or are unable to do it themselves, or the volunteers have not made it down the list to them yet. Its going to take weeks of hard work; and that’s even before rebuilding can begin. I’m calling out to all our Rebuild Lakeshore partners to come and lend a hand in this clean up effort.