MEMPHIS, Tennessee — As the recovery continues along the Louisiana coast, Mid-Southerners are on the ground helping to make a difference.
On Friday, Hurricane Delta came ashore as a category two hurricane just weeks after Hurricane Laura, a category four hurricane, slammed into the state.
Ahead of Delta, Tennessee Task Force One deployed 80 people to help. The group included firefighters, paramedics, doctors and engineers.
Deputy Director Colin Buress and team are responding mostly in the Lake Charles area surveying damage and helping people run generators safely and properly.
“You can tell where the damage was previously but now it’s just trying to locate who has the new damage and what we need to do to mitigate it," Buress said. "You still have broken tree branches, trees that have fallen through fences, falling through roofs. Roofs are gone.”
By mid-afternoon on Sunday, Buress said they had surveyed more than 2,000 buildings for damage that day alone. They also initially helped respond to a backlog of 911 calls after the storm.
The American Red Cross of the Mid-South also has volunteers stationed in Louisiana assisting with recovery. Volunteer Francis Porter, of Memphis, has been on the ground since September 1st, first helping with Hurricane Laura and now Hurricane Delta.
“Mother Nature doesn’t live by a calendar and Mother Nature is going to do what she does so all I do is wake up every day to see how I can help further," Porter said.
Porter said storm victims were just getting back into their homes before Hurricane Delta hit.
“Folks that were affected by it twice-fold," he said. "Some of them are just in total dismay. Some of them are really, really don’t understand how this could be happening again.”
Both the Red Cross and Tennessee Task Force One have been asked for a lot of help recently. Hurricane Delta was the fifth deployment for the task force in recent months.
“To make a difference in their community in their time in need is a good feeling so it helps drive what you do," Buress said. "We can rest later but we just want to make a difference here.”
The task force has also responded to Hurricane Laura, Hurricane Sally, Hurricane Beta and the Oregon forest fires. Buress said the team will stay in Louisiana until they're told they're no longer needed.
Porter said he's prepared to stay to help through the end of October, making it two months before he returns home to Memphis.
“There are so many people that have gone from absolutely nothing to some just needing a little help to get through the day," Porter said. "The Red Cross provides sheltering, as well as food for these folks as well as items that would help them get back to where they were before the disaster.”
To assist the Red Cross and to help Hurricane Delta victims, donate here or by calling 800-RED-CROSS or texting the word DELTA to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
