AHAH Monthly Program Update - Louisiana (February 2021)

LOUISIANA HURRICANE RELIEF UPDATE FEBRUARY 2021

TOTAL PROGRAM IMPACT

8,953 56

LIVES IMPACTED

VOLUNTEERS

1,444

VOLUNTEER DAYS

172

JOBS COMPLETED

Current Situation After a well-deserved break, our team of All Hands and Hearts staff returned to work on January 18, and has already completed one roof repair site. The team is also busy preparing for the arrival of our first cohort of DM12 volunteers later this month. Following a period of mandatory quarantine and onboarding training, the volunteers will start on their first recovery worksites.

*includes 8,675 people who we indirectly impacted while working at a distribution center

Community Voices Our team had the pleasure of working on Ms. Wynetta’s home just before Christmas. From their time on site, they learned that Ms. Wynetta is a passionate and caring Lake Charles native who comes from a large family and is the eldest sibling of five. It was clear to our team that Ms. Wynetta spends the majority of her time caring for others, whether it be her family, or her students - she currently works as a Special Services Coordinator at the Calcasieu Parish School Board - so they were very glad to be able to show Ms. Wynetta some care by mucking and gutting her home.

The team were also able to muck and gut three of her relatives’ homes, and Ms. Wynetta was “so grateful for all the blessings that All Hands and Hearts has done for her and the family.”

Photos: (top) An AHAH volunteer working on a muck & gut job, (left) the interior of Ms. Wynetta’s home before and during the muck & gut.

Learn about us at:

allhandsandhearts.org

Disaster Profile Louisiana has been hit by five storms this year, the two largest of which caused significant damage. On August 27, Hurricane Laura pounded the Louisiana and Texas coasts, making landfall near Cameron, Louisiana as a Category 4 storm with 150-mph winds. Six weeks later, on October 9, Hurricane Delta made landfall as a Category 2 storm in Creole, Louisiana. It followed a similar path to Hurricane Laura and compounded the damages already left by previous storms as well as causing a lot more rainfall accumulation, with several places reporting up to 18” within a few hours.

Our Work Our team has been assisting families impacted by both Hurricane Laura and Delta since October 2020. With the support of AmeriCorps NCCC members, we were initially focusing solely on response activities, but in December 2020, we also began a Resilient Roof Repair Program to help address some of the long-term recovery needs. We’ve committed to stay in Southwest Louisiana through the summer, and will be continuing with both response and recovery activities. If you’d like to join us in supporting communities impacted by the Louisiana Hurricanes, please consider making a donation.

About All Hands and Hearts We effectively and efficiently address the immediate and long-term needs of communities impacted by natural disasters. We communicate directly with local leaders and community members and then deploy our unique model of engaging volunteers to enable direct impact, helping to build safer, more resilient schools, homes and infrastructure.

We have earned a 4-star rating by Charity Navigator for the seventh year in a row. This year only seven percent of rated non-profits received this distinction for financial and operational efficiency.

Our Partners

info@allhandsandhearts.org (508) 758-8211