Texans Help Louisiana With Flood Relief

“I saw the coverage and I knew we had to help.”

By David Martin DaviesAugust 24, 2016 11:24 am, ,

From Texas Public Radio

On Saturday in Denham Springs, Louisiana, about 15 miles east of Baton Rouge, the parking lot of a Sam’s Club was turned into a one stop shop flood victims.

Just days earlier the entire area was under water, but now this is where people can grab a shopping cart, get free cleaning supplies, cases of water and ice.

They can also talk to FEMA about their claim for government disaster assistance.

And they can get a hot meal from San Antonio’s Chow Train – a nonprofit food truck. Its volunteers traveled to Denham Springs to help with disaster relief.

“I saw the coverage and I knew we had to help,” said Chef Joan Cheever who runs the Chow Train.

This is the ninth disaster that Cheever has run to in the last five years – including the tornadoes of Moore Oklahoma, the Bastrop Fire and the floods in Wimberley and San Marcos.

“What the Chow Train brings is some good food – some hugs – just to listen to some people’s stories and tell them that they aren’t forgotten,” she said.

“It’s horrible – just horrible what these people are going through right now,” said Dennis Quinn, Cheever’s husband, He’s the Chow Train’s “road boss,” running logistics for the operation.

“Driving down some of these side streets you can see the water marks up on the sides of some of these houses – four or five, six feet. They had to rip out 90 percent 100 percent of the interior of these houses because there is so much water damage,” he said.

The streets of Denham Springs are over flowing with the things that used to be people’s lives.

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