By Philip Timothy, Managing Editor
As one north Louisiana flood victim said, while surveying the devastation, this week, “This flooding is our Katrina.”
“You know he’s right,” Louisiana Baptist Convention’s Men’s and Ministry Director John Hebert said. “In the number of people affected by Katrina and the flooding it is about the same but the flooding far exceeds Katrina geographically.”
As more floodwaters move southward, the Red River, as seen in this video taken at the Red River Waterway’s John H. Overton Recreation Facility, is raging through and past lock and dam No. 2. The river continues to rise almost a foot a day and is expected to crest at 40.5 feet in Alexandria on Sunday, March 20. As of Friday at 3 p.m. the river stood at 70.3 feet. The river is expected to crest late Sunday or early Monday.
The Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) estimates more than 11,000 homes have received some type of flood damage. Twenty-six Louisiana parishes have been declared federal disaster areas and additional parishes are expected to be added to this growing list in the days to come.
Because of the size of the disaster, Hebert hopes churches respond like they did for Katrina.
“Many churches haven’t waited for the water to go down. They have been right there on the front lines since the rains began,” he said. “And we are daily hearing great stories how churches in the affected area have banded together to help each other and to minister to people in their communities.
“But a disaster of this magnitude is going to take a herculean effort,” Hebert said, “so I encourage every church, if they are not already involved, to please become engaged in relief efforts,” he said.
“As I said before, we are not first responders, we are recovery. We have deployed all of our assets and 11 states [Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida] have sent units – assessors, chaplains, mud-out teams, washing, feeding and shower units — to the state,” Hebert said. “Many are already in state right now working, while others are expected to arrive by this weekend.
Five incident command centers, under the supervision of Gibbie McMillian, Louisiana Baptists’ Disaster Relief Director, have been established in five of the hardest hit regions in the state — First Baptist Church Haughton, Ruston (Rolling Hills Ministries), North Monroe Baptist Church, East Leesville Baptist Church and Woodland Park in Hammond.
“I sense people are starting to get a little frustrated because it is taking so long for the water to go down,” said Hebert. “We are a little frustrated in how long it is taking as well. We are working. We have committed everything we have to getting people’s home cleaned up and helping them to get back up on their feet.”
“Please understand all of our state assets have been deployed and we are barely scratching the surface, the magnitude of this flooding is just unbelievable. There are very few places in the state that has not been affected by it,” Hebert said.
To put more units in the field, the state is offering DR training tomorrow in different areas of the state.
A number of Disaster Relief training sessions have been scheduled to help put additional units in the field to help with clean-up efforts related to the flooding.
Tonight, Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond is holding a mud-out training session for those wanting to help remove items from homes damaged by high waters.
On Saturday, Temple Baptist Church in Ruston will also host disaster relief training for a variety of areas from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
And Tuesday, mud-out training will take place at Houston River Baptist Church in Sulphur at 6:30 pm. Also that night at 6:30, Trinity Baptist Church in Natchitoches will offer mud-out and shower unit training.
UNPRECEDENTED FLOODING
“This is unprecedented [the flooding],” Hebert said. “I don’t remember the flood of 1973 that well because I was in high school playing basketball but I do remember the flood of 1991.
“I remember it because how fast the water rose,” he said.
“In ’91, it was basically a 48-hour rain event which brought in a lot of rain in a short period of time, left water lapping at the highway and then moved out quickly,” said Hebert. “There was significant flooding but it didn’t stay around too long.
“While the water won’t get as high as it did in ’73 and ’91, it has gotten high enough,” said Hebert. “People are suffering … they need our help … they need our prayers. I hope you will join with us if you haven’t already to help these people.
“Together we can make a huge difference in this state and the lives of all the people that have fallen victim to the floods,” said Hebert.
