The international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse has stood up an aid operation in Bossier City to help area homeowners rebuild following the devastating floods.
The Boone, North Carolina-based organization is basing its operation at Bellaire Baptist Church. Volunteers from out of the area will be housed and fed at the church. Leslie Meinen of Houston assesses the need and coordinates volunteers. She’s writing up work orders for homeowners in Haughton.
“It is a big mess and it is very sad. Everything is gone -- every cotton ball, every picture, every piece of furniture, sheets, pillows. There’s absolutely nothing left,” Meinen said, who’s worked about 40 disasters over the past five years through Samaritan’s Purse.
Debra Cooper came in from Friona, Texas, to help – about 10 hours away. She updates a database with job sites and assigns volunteers. She says right now there’s still water in many homes, so it’s a good time to gather up manpower for the so-called “mud outs” to come.
“We’re finding a fine silt in the homes. Because of areas where we’re at there’s a lot of vegetation coverage, we’re not seeing a lot of mud. But there have been cases where we’re shoveling out of the home buckets of mud and water before we start the cleanup process,” Cooper said.
Samaritan’s Purse disaster relief units are tractor-trailers stocked with heavy tarps, generators and tools to rebuild and cleanup waterlogged homes. Meinen hopes volunteers step up from the local area.
“All you need to bring is yourself. You don’t need gloves or any equipment and they go and in the first hour you see huge improvement. For your heart, it’s just so wonderful to see you’re making a huge impact immediately,” Meinen said.
Orientations are held twice daily at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. before groups head to cleanup sites. Cooper expects about 70 volunteers from across the country will be housed at Bellaire Baptist. Samaritan’s Purse is also basing an operation in West Monroe at White’s Ferry Road Church.
For more information about how to help or to volunteer with Samaritan’s Purse go to spvolunteernetwork.org. Donations to help with flood relief efforts can be made at samaritanspurse.org.
Samaritan’s Purse has helped more than 29,000 families in 35 U.S. states following floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires and ice storms.
