Relief groups plead for help with La. flood recovery

WASHINGTON — Sherry Buresh and a team of volunteers spent three days this week cleaning out a house in Denham Springs that was flooded with seven feet of water. They ripped out cabinets, pulled up carpet and threw out family photos that couldn’t be saved.

“We’re moving out household possessions and throwing everything away, which is so sad and hard to do with the homeowners there," said Buresh, director of U.S. Disaster Response for All Hands Volunteers, a disaster response group based in Mattapoisett, Mass.

Buresh and other relief groups said they could use more help.

“The more volunteers that come in, the quicker we can get people taken care of," she said.

Buresh and others, including President Obama, are pleading with Americans to pull out their checkbooks to help fund recovery efforts in Louisiana, where flooding has killed 13 people and damaged tens of thousands of homes and businesses.

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The state is also desperate for volunteers to help with the months-long effort to rebuild devastated communities.

“It does take the whole community to recover from a disaster like this," said Brad Kieserman, vice president of Disaster Operations and Logistics for the American Red Cross. “This is certainly the biggest natural disaster we’ve seen in the United States since (Superstorm) Sandy."

Across the country, he said, small faith-based groups and large organizations are organizing food drives and collecting donations.

“There’s nothing that those folks are doing that is not needed in Louisiana," he said. “This is going to be a multi-month operation. If you can’t go now, maybe you can go after Labor Day."

Obama, who toured flood-damaged communities Tuesday, urged Americans to “stay focused" on the disaster in Louisiana.

”Federal assistance alone is not going to be enough to make people’s lives whole again, so I’m asking every American to do what you can to help get families and businesses back on their feet," he said.

More than 100,000 individuals and households have registered for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which has approved more than $127 million in assistance.  

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FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said he’s concerned that the need for help hasn’t resonated with Americans. Fugate, who has visited the state twice in recent weeks, including Tuesday’s tour with Obama, said the effort has switched from emergency response to recovery.

"People are kind of like tuned out because of, I think, everything from the elections to the Olympics," he said in an interview Tuesday. “I don’t think people across the nation realize how big or how bad this is or how much help the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Catholic Charities — just a whole bunch of volunteer organizations that are down here — are going to need."

Buresh expects that up to 75 volunteers will sign up to assist All Hands Volunteers in Louisiana in coming weeks. Volunteers already there have come from as far away as the United Kingdom. Ideally, she said, the organization needs about 150 volunteers a day.

Meanwhile, the group has to prioritize which groups to help first. The elderly, disabled and families with young children top the list.

“Right now, it seems like everybody is a high priority, so we’re just trying to get as many volunteers in as we can," said Buresh, who also helped in Ocean Springs, Miss., after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 

Earlier this year, All Hands Volunteers spent three months in Washington Parish helping homeowners recover from the March floods. Some of those homes have flooded again.

“It’s so sad we’re back here again," said Buresh.

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Kieserman and other relief officials said they need money to buy, ship and distribute non-monetary donations, to house and feed volunteers, and to provide a variety of services to flood victims. It costs about $1,400 to send a Red Cross volunteer to Louisiana for 11 days, he said.

As of Monday, the Red Cross had pledges of $4.4 million for the Louisiana disaster. Kieserman estimated the organization will spend at least $30 million on the disaster.

On Wednesday, the Louisiana State Society, a group composed mostly of Louisiana natives living in Washington, hosted a fundraiser that raised about $5,000 for relief groups in the state. More than 100 people showed up. Others donated online.

Michelle Mott, a native of Lafayette and the group's president, said it's important to help family and friends affected by the flood.

“It’s been an amazing response," she said. 

 “We want to make sure people are taken care of back home," said Neal Kirby, a native of Mandeville. “This is a long-term recovery effort. Once the cameras turn off, it’s not going to go away."

 Veneeth Iyengar, a native of Baton Rouge, said Louisiana may be miles away, but it's still home.

“When we see our brothers and sisters struggling... it just makes sense for us to do a little something," he said.

Nicole Morales, a New Orleans native and a contractor with FEMA living in Washington, took vacation this week and flew to Baton Rouge to help clean out houses with Team Rubicon, a group composed mostly of veterans and first responders.

She remembers when volunteers came to help her family after Hurricane Katrina.

“It’s important to do the same exact thing," said Morales, who spearheaded the Wednesday fundraiser. “It’s my turn to pay it forward."

Contact Deborah Barfield Berry at dberry@gannett.com. Twitter: @dberrygannett