Flooding in south Louisiana has led to the evacuation of around 40,000 homes. Volunteers from Utah began arriving over the weekend. Rich Woodruff of the Red Cross said that the response has been one of the biggest in several years.
“Right now, we’ve got 25 en route. Actually, there’s quite a few that are starting to arrive. We started sending folks out on Sunday. Another dozen went out yesterday and we’ve got more going out today,” Woodruff said. “We have volunteers from all 50 states that are represented here. By the end of the week we expect about 1,500 volunteers. It’s the biggest deployment for us since Hurricane Sandy, so it’s kind of all hands on deck.”
Over 20 inches of rain within a 24 period caused rivers to rise to record levels. Government agencies, the National Guard, non-profit relief organizations and interfaith groups have been collaborating to help those displaced by the disaster. Woodruff said that relief efforts will need address a wide array of needs.
“Sheltering is probably the biggest thing. Within the context of that, you’ve got a lot of other needs that are going to come up. For example, mental health services, family assistance, food, clothing, short-term just get them over the hump and then we begin to sit down and say, ‘Okay, how do we get you back on your feet,’” he said. “We’ll feed people where they’re at. It could be 5,000 meals a day. Then, we might have IT support. You have to have a lot of infrastructure for something this big, so you’ve got logistics and relief supply distribution.”
11,000 people remain in shelters.
