Flood Relief

[Luigi Mandile]

Partners for Community Relief: The Flood of 2016

 

 

I wanted to write something about plans to provide relief for the flood victims. Like all things I hate using the word “victim” and would prefer “survivor” because we are a caring a resilient people in Louisiana. Our own experience in New Orleans and the surrounding southeast Louisiana areas have taught us that we can’t recover alone. We need a helping hand and with that help we can do impressive things. Look at where we are now and think of what the city was like in September 2005. Impressive!

 

We believe that there are basically three evolutions that we should plan on:

 

1. Immediate needs will continue so long as people are displaced without any long term housing. That means we need to collect items that are useful and needed for short term environments (like shelters and hotel rooms). So we created a “toiletry” list and include such items as baby formula, diapers, and cases of water. We expect this situation to last for the next several days.

 

2. As folks repopulate, go home and evaluate, and as some sense or rhythm to the post-flood period develops, replacing and surviving become important. Incomes and the ability to receive income are impaired and ready access to goods is diminished. So, collecting toiletries is still important and ongoing. But now is the time to collect and redistribute gift cards and cash donations. It is also a time to start collecting recovery tools.

 

3. While all of the above is evolving and developing, we at St. Anna’s, in conjunction with our partners both here in NOLA and in the Baton Rouge area, will be cultivating names of families that will need our assistance in recovery (this means mucking out and demolition work). We will be surveying sites and determining needs. AT THE SAME TIME, we are asking our partners to create *“Volunteer Lists” so that Recovery Teams can be created and when the time is right teams will be deployed and equipped. Typically a team consists of 5-10 members plus two to three folks to provide support. Support folk will make food and deliver water and food to sites (make extra to share with others in the neighborhood). Car pooling will be requested and St. Anna’s will be able to transport one work crew with our van. St. Anna’s at this point will defray costs by offering stipends to car pool drivers for gas.

 

*Volunteer Lists should include Name, Phone, and E-mail address and type of work they can do (mucking/demolition or food prep/delivery)

 

Now you may be seeing a lot of news about groups already on site and doing demolition work. Some communities and faith based organizations are really most excellent at early response. BUT, please know there is enough disaster to go around. One report says that about 40,000 homes were flooded and we can certainly add businesses and public buildings to the list. So, don’t be overly anxious about responding quickly. This disaster, like other major events, will be a bit of a long haul. Wouldn’t it be a gift if we still had personnel willing to work a month from now? Such will be needed.

 

So, please stay in touch with St. Anna’s as a central contact and deployment office, your deployment office. Send your volunteer lists to us; deliver your toiletry bags to us so that we can start distribution; deliver your gift cards to us; or encourage cash donations on our website or drop cash donations by the church (please mark cash donations “2016 Flood”). It is important for you and your friends to know that 100% of your donations go directly to those most in need. Also, it may be important to know that we are a non-profit agency and therefore some of your donation may be tax deductible (keep your receipts for tax purposes).

 

Other bits of wisdom:  we know that some employers are willing to compensate their employees who volunteer for a day or two to do the manual labor of recovery. Check and see if your employer has such a policy or even ask if such could be done. Their pay for your service might give them a tax break.

 

If you have ANY questions please don’t hesitate to call the church or email us at:

 

Fr. Bill – Rector                                               Fr....@stannanola.org                       504-947-2121

Luigi – Parish Admin                                       Lu...@stannanola.org                         504-947-2121

Diana – Anna’s Place NOLA Director             Di...@stannanola.org                       504-947-2121

 

Our website is www.stannanola.org and we have a FB site. The later we will try to update regularly for information about our community efforts.

 

We’ll be back!