UNDATED (WTAQ) – Red Cross volunteers from Northeast Wisconsin are in Louisiana helping with the flood relief effort.
One of them is helping out with shelters and distribution of goods in the Lafayette area.
“We have 7 shelters open in the area I’m working in and I think we are close to 500 to 550 in our shelters,” says Nick Cluppert, Disaster Program Manager at the Northeast Wisconsin American Red Cross office. “At this point we’re starting to see some of our shelter population go down, not too fast, but people are able to start to return to their homes but they don’t have much to return to.”
As of Thursday, officials say about 4,000 people statewide were in shelters. Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said the death toll from the flooding stood at 13 people and about 30,000 people have been rescued from the floods.
While those who are able to return home are doing so, Cluppert says it’s difficult to get around.
“There’s still places that are inaccessible, there’s still places that there’s concern of additional flooding, there’s been levies that they’re watching very closely and we have shelters still on standby in case they need some more evacuations in those areas,” Cluppert says.
Cluppert says that, beginning Friday, Emergency Response Vehicles will be taken to areas of the state which are accessible in order to distribute food, supplies and clean-up kits.
While each emergency response is different, Cluppert does believe the 2016 flooding in Louisiana is the worst disaster to hit the area since Hurricane Sandy. Cluppert knows because one of his previous deployments as a Red Cross volunteer was during Sandy four years ago.
If you’d like to donate to the relief effort, you can go to redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS or texting the word “LAFLOODS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation. Donations enable the Red Cross to prepare for, respond to and help people recovery from these disasters.
Residents of the affected areas can connect with their loved ones by using the “I’m Safe” button on the Red Cross Emergency App which is free and can be found in the app store for someone’s mobile device by searching for “American Red Cross” or by going to redcross.org/apps.
People can also visit www.redcross.org/safeandwell to register on the Red Cross Safe and Well website, a secure and private way that friends and family connect. The site also allows people to update their status on Facebook and Twitter.
