The following post comes from Reid Doster, Coordinator of CBF Louisiana. He provides an update on the Hurricane Isaac response in LaPlace, Louisiana, and the partnership of CBF and Fuller Center for Housing.

A mere five days after Hurricane Isaac roared ashore (seven years to the day after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast) teams from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship responded to LaPlace, St John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana.  They began “mucking out” some of the 7,000 homes flooded for the first time ever.  With the support of like-minded church groups and the community, we can now report that 98 percent of the homes have been mucked, and that most important step in the recovery is underway—homes are being rebuilt!

Our long-standing partners in providing housing for the most needy are now on the ground and rebuilding in LaPlace.  In fact, their first homeowner, Larry, an uninsured heart attack and two-stroke survivor, was expected to have moved back in his home by Christmas!

Like so many others in LaPlace, Larry’s area wasn’t under mandatory evacuation orders, primarily because it had never flooded before. Trapped by rising waters, he was able to wade in water up to his neck, over to his neighbor’s two-story house.  There his eight-person household was rescued by sheriff’s boat and taken to a nearby shelter.

One of CBF’s rebuilding partners in LaPlace is Fuller Center Disaster ReBuilders (FCDR –http://www.fullercenter.org/disaster-rebuilders ).  FCDR has been rebuilding flooded homes and building new homes in hurricane-devastated areas on the Gulf Coast since 2005. Using volunteer teams for labor, and donations and grants for funding, they’ve been able to restore 150 families to their homes.

In LaPlace we need your team to help make this miracle happen again for the estimated 200 homes which meet our criteria for assistance.

For details and team scheduling, please contact Reid Doster at reid.cbflouisiana@gmail.com
or (985) 778-6049.