By Message Staff
As Louisiana prepares for thousands of volunteers this Labor Day weekend, Louisiana Baptist disaster relief officials are reminding everyone assistance will be needed long past the upcoming holiday weekend.
“It looks like we will switch from disaster relief to disaster rebuild and we will need volunteer groups from all over Louisiana and the country to help us,” said John Hebert, missions and ministry director for Louisiana Baptists.
Individuals and church teams can visit the Volunteer Guest Services page and sign-up for dates listed. Once the form is complete, an area coordinator will contact volunteers about potential opportunities.
Through Aug. 29, the seven incident command centers in the state reported that:
- 18,000 meals per day are being prepped by Oklahoma Baptists at Istrouma Baptist Church in Baton Rouge.
- 7,000 meals per day are being prepped by Missouri Baptists at Walker Baptist Church.
- Another 10,000 meals are being prepared by Mississippi Baptists at Woodland Park Baptist Church in Hammond and Texas Baptists in Lafayette.
- Over 251,000 meals have been prepared to date.
- 955 projects have been assessed and more than 400 jobs have been completed. Mud-out teams are still desperately needed.
- Also needed are teams to spray houses for mold. Sprayers and mold killer are provided.
- More than 4,400 volunteers on mission have already assisted in the first 16 days with thousands more anticipated. Among the volunteers are 117 from Florida, who are still on the ground but keeping their eye on the Gulf for a possible tropical threat to their state.
A Southern Baptists of Texas Convention Disaster Relief volunteers cleans the area where the team cooked meals at the Bayou Church in Lafayette.
