By Sara Horn For those of you not living in Southeast Louisiana, this past weekend was probably very different than ours. You probably watched a little of the Olympics, got ready for a new school year, or enjoyed one last summer trip or cookout. Things didn’t happen that way here. Last Thursday night, a week ago as I’m writing this, the rain started. This is not unusual for summer in our area. But by Friday morning, the rain had started filling ditches that normally don’t fill, and covering roadways that normally don’t cover. I was on my way to a doctor’s appointment in Baton Rouge when we got the call that schools, our second full day of the new year, were closing and parents needed to come back and get their kids. Buses were already en route trying to deliver kids back home they’d just picked up. The water came fast and no one was prepared for what was happening. A couple of buses got stuck in several feet of water because they could no longer see the road. Teachers got stuck at their respective schools because after helping their students leave, they found out the roads to their own homes were no longer passable. State offices closed and my husband had already turned around and returned to the house since major … [Read more...]

By Lane Corley What an incredible week in Louisiana! Flash floods, roof top rescues, shelters, gutted homes, & now months of recovery efforts ahead of us. I ended last week thinking that I was going into a couple of weeks of heavy promotion for our Multiply Louisiana Conference & I’d keep pushing toward 40 church plants for this year in Louisiana, along with helping my kids get settled into new routines in school & prepping for a big fall with my church. But with the 1,000 year flood that hit over the weekend, I’ve had the opportunity this last week to help Southern Baptist setup Incident Command Operations for one of the worst disasters in Louisiana history. It’s given me the opportunity to see a different side of SBC Disaster Relief operations. I’ve been on chainsaw crews, mud out crews, Assessment teams, & chaplain teams, & I knew about Incident Command, with little knowledge of what went on. Still don’t know much, but here’s a few observation & takeaways from shadowing Incident Command this week: Just like everywhere else, it’s led by volunteers Incident commanders are trained & equipped a little differently. A communications trailer, laptops, 3-5 phone lines. All managed by volunteers. … [Read more...]