Video: Louisiana Flood Victims Show Gratitude For Area Volunteers

DENHAM SPRINGS, La. (WCBI) – Volunteers from Columbus continued to rebuild areas in southern Louisiana Tuesday.

A group from Fairview Baptist Church is helping those affected by last week’s devastating floods, which damaged more than 40,000 homes.

Denham Springs mayor Gerard Landry says he’s been happy to see this help.

“Oh my gosh, we’ve had responders from all over the country,” Landry said.

Many groups are coming from Arkansas, Texas, Alabama to help. Residents here say they’ve been impressed with all these efforts.

“It shows that people do love one another,” Denham Springs resident Mickey Watson said. “This humanitarian effort has blown me away.”

The Columbus volunteers wrapped up their trip Tuesday. More groups from the church plan on visiting the area throughout the next three months.

“It provided a lot of shock because we were overwhelmed,” local pastor Michael Luce said. “We didn’t realize this could happen to us.”

This is not an area that typically experiences flooding.

“Even the night before, a lot of us were just assuming a small flood,” Luce said.

But as many as 30 inches fell. Resident Lori Taylor lost everything.

“It was devastating,” she said. “We cried a lot. We’re still crying a lot.”

Her family were able to get to safety unharmed after frantically fleeing, though their home will need to be completely rebuilt.

“When I walked in the house, it was completely trashed,” Taylor said.

This family, like many in the area, does not have flood insurance.

“We’ll get through this. We’ve had many charitable donations,” she said.

President Obama visited Baton Rouge Tuesday. That’s about a 20-minute drive west from Denham Springs. Over 200,000 people have applied for aid from FEMA.