South Louisiana Floods

[danj]

Please keep south Louisiana in your prayers.   Several areas have had and/or are having record levels of water from rains, backwaters, rivers cresting, etc.   Many people have been driven from their homes and are either in temporary shelters or are in the process of finding temporary shelter.   My wife and I both work in Mississippi, so we went  home Friday night via a fairly long round-about way to get there.   The next day that path was no longer passable, so we were very blessed to be able to make sure our house is ok, which it is.   Thank you Lord!  We decided to travel back to Mississippi so we could both go back to work Monday.  Let's just say the trip from our house to Mississippi was interesting.   We found out that interstate 12 (a really major thoroughfare through LA) was shutdown from Baton Rouge to Covington--about a 60 mile stretch!!!    That is totally amazing.  We tried to take some state highways East, but we found out the route was closed.   We ended up and were able to travel back to MS via I-55 (which had been closed the day before!).   South Louisiana is a real mess right now and it will be several days for some areas to see water levels going away.   For those of you who do the DIYC forum, James at Boscoyo got ~12" of water in his house; he will have a lot of cleanup ahead of him.  The area he is in got tremendous amounts of rain and two rivers go south & north respectively of where he lives, so backwaters are a real problem there too.   Some areas got as much as ~24" of rain from Thursday afternoon to Saturday morning.  Our church is high and dry, but there was so much water on the property between the church building and the main road in front of the church that we were not able to have church services today.   I figured ya'll would appreciate some perspective from one of the locals!!

[bpducman]

Thanks for the information!
And Yes you are in our Prayers.
Brad

[danj]

Thanks for the feedback, Brad!  And of course thanks for the prayers.

[algerdes]

James was able to fly his drone and get some amazing shots of the area.  Search for James Hohensee on Facebook.  The links are there.

BTW - The reports were as much as 12 feet at some of his relatives businesses and homes.  Prayers are definitely in order.

[danj]

In Livingston Parish (a bit East of James), it is estimated that about 100,000 of the approx. 135,000 residents have flooded homes.   In my parish, Ascension, it is estimated that about 30,000 people have flooded homes.   The last I heard, about 10,000 people are in temporary shelters.   This was a huge amount of rain that fell Thursday thru Sunday last weekend.   It just overwhelmed a lot of the infrastructure, including levees, diversion canals, etc etc...

[algerdes]

In Livingston Parish (a bit East of James), it is estimated that about 100,000 of the approx. 135,000 residents have flooded homes.   In my parish, Ascension, it is estimated that about 30,000 people have flooded homes.   The last I heard, about 10,000 people are in temporary shelters.   This was a huge amount of rain that fell Thursday thru Sunday last weekend.   It just overwhelmed a lot of the infrastructure, including levees, diversion canals, etc etc...

The number one thing I ALWAYS PRAY FOR is everyone to be safe.
We can deal with the rest. 
Just tell us what you want/need and we (the thousands that believe in helping our brothers and sisters, no matter where they are) will try to get it to you.

[danj]

Here are two Baton Rouge area churches I personally know & trust to use donations with wisdom, discretion, and honesty.   I'm sure there are other good organizations...    I figured I would post a few I know.  The losses people have experienced are truly staggering.

http://healingplacechurch.org/disaster-relief/
http://www.bethany.calls.net

[bpducman]

We also trust Samaritans Purse   You can find them at

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/article/franklin-graham-encourages-flood-affected-homeowners-in-louisiana/?utm_source=Ggl&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=m_YGND-B16V_GGLSP-LAFloods-ETA

Please give in as many sites as you trust.

Brad

[danj]

I know I'm wearing everyone out on this....  Here are some pics we got today as we drove in the south Louisiana area.   Truly devastating...