When disaster strikes Louisiana, Louisiana rises up to offer help

As thousands of Louisiana residents continue to occupy shelters across the state while others make their way home to assess the damage done by historic flooding, people in St. Mary Parish are busy making sure those hardest hit will be able to start cleaning up the mess left behind.
Dozens of volunteers in Baldwin at the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Sager Brown warehouse facility were busy on Tuesday creating kits of cleaning supplies to be delivered to those in need in flood-stricken areas of the state.
The durable plastic buckets were filled with a wide variety of cleaning supplies including soap, sponges, towels, gloves, detergent and other much needed items. Working in an assembly-line style operation that would have made Henry Ford proud, volunteers built thousands of cleaning kits in just a few hours to be shipped out and delivered where needed on Wednesday.
UMCOR Director Amy Fuselier said the effort was undertaken to try and ease the burden on those hardest hit by the devastating flooding just a few hours north of St. Mary Parish. Fuselier said despite a recent shortage of supplies, the organization was able to reach out to the community for help and the community responded.
“Due to the flooding throughout Louisiana, there is a big need for the cleaning buckets that we provide,” Fuselier said. “Because we’ve had spring flooding and other flooding, we’ve had a low supply. So what we’ve done is activate a volunteer network through the United Methodist District Office and social media and local churches. We made an appeal to the community to help us construct cleaning buckets. And what we have here is an overwhelming response to the call.”
Fuselier said approximately 70 volunteers answered the call for help from throughout the parish. She also said there were volunteers offering to help identify where the estimated 2,500 buckets would be needed and how to get them there.
“We have volunteers offering to identify modes of transportation so we can get the buckets to the areas where they are needed,” Fuselier.