As most everyone know, parts of Louisiana had over 2 feet (24 to 30 inches) of rain dropped on it. Thousands of people have lost everything. Has the Mormon church done anything to help these people or is the churches waiting until things have died down for photo op pictures of yellow shirts helping out? Where is the food, clothing, washing machines that are needed now?

posted on the DS STAKE FB wall-

Those in the Denham Springs Stake please understand that we care, love and pray with you as these flood waters recede. I need everyone to remain calm and maintain integrity and patience. We are working with local, area, and Salt Lake leadership to provide support as quickly as possible.

Help is on the way!

There will be work crews working from the Zachary Building and the Hammond Building this weekend. Please do all you can with your own resources, but I guarantee you that things will be handled easier with work crews of 8-10.

One person trying to clean up a home could take days... but multiple people can knock it out in a couple of hours.

As waters recede, your first step of action should be to get all of the wet material out of the home and to the curb. Wet furniture, Wet carpet, wet flooring, etc.

Get fans going and open windows to allow for everything else to dry out.

If you are able to get all of the wet items out of your home, today, tomorrow, or Friday, I ask that you move on to the next home in your Ward to get wet material out. Please report any status updates to your your home to 1-800-451-1954 so that we know what is left to do on your home.


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I happen to have once resided in the affected areas. I understand that the local congregations are organizing help for the next couple of weekends.

While I dislike the church, I care about many of the people in that region Louisiana. They are generally very caring and helpful people regardless of their church membership.

Yellow shirts or not, those TBMs that go to clean and work are giving their time and resources to help others. It is too bad that they choose to wear labels like the helping hands shirts to get credit for their church. Most local TBMs probably still have their helping hands shirts from their time cleaning up Louisiana and Mississippi after Katrina. Their hearts are in the right places.

carry on just as they always have.

The Hammond Ward was my first church "home" when I joined, and they were like a big family. Everybody looked out for each other.

When I moved to NM, the local ward here felt so different. All strangers. Nobody seemed especially interested in a lost and bewildered newcomer. (Not until the bishop told this divorced, bilingual RM that there was a new lady in the ward who also spoke Spanish. . .)

I hadn't joined the church yet when we had our big flood in 82 or so. I don't know how they behaved at that time. A lot of local churches and schools set up temporary resettlement areas for people whose houses were destroyed or very badly messed up.

Most businesses didn't charge personal leave for those people whose homes they knew had been flooded. They knew that we couldn't go back to work until the carpets were pulled up and all sorts of other chores were done.

So basically Salt Lake has done nothing to help (?). I thought the church had 18 wheel tractor trailers ready to deliver food and supplies were needed. I heard one was based in Houston which means it could have been to Baton Rouge within a day.

Is this true - no help from Salt Lake? So sad if true.

Maybe some Relief Society is having a service meeting as we speak to assemble a safety pin, two Band-Aids and a Q-tip in baggies to send to people in need.


smirk

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for SLC to do something. As for saving what can be of their homes, many residents are already tearing out the drywall and removing damaged materials. I am watching a bit on the sidelines, though I hope to spend some of my weekend over there.

If I see any sign of headquarters involvement, I'll update this post. Most likely, there will be a humanitarian aide donation site on lds.org. Of course that money can be used however SLC wishes.

Catnip...yeah, the people carry on pretty well. Neighbors and families really pitch in to help with the aftermath. My time in Louisiana was brief, and I only exprrienced one storm while there. It was a minor storm, but power was out for a week. There is nothing like falling asleep in that heat and humidity to the sound of generators humming all over a neighborhood.

The only time I ever hear about Mormon relief efforts is from Mormon sources. Basically, if you look up any tragedy and see who helped, they rarely list TSCC.

If they helped as much as they pretend to, you can bet their name would be listed. I've concluded they solicit funds, do a few highly visible things, publish them in DesNews, and pocket the rest.

They wear the yellow shirts to make it easier for survivors to accept help. Helpers who are unidentified make them afraid of being scammed in some way, or asked to pay (which happens shockingly often in every disaster). Emergency relief workers applaud their use as it makes the relief effort easier on everyone.

And usually the help is from neighboring stake, and requested by the stake leaders.

Southern Baptists often take flack on this board but the south is SB country and their relief organization is second to none and already in action there.

I see that the notice on the stake FB page instructs people, once they have removed all wet items from their home, to move on to the next home in your ward. Evidentally, only those homes of families in your ward, not just any home that is damaged and could possibly use help. So for those living in this area who are not LDS, do not expect to receive any help from these ward members. How very altruistic of them!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2016 06:48PM by cinda.

Thousands of LDS members are helping in the recovery in Louisiana and they will continue to help in the weeks and months ahead!

while the Morg gets the PR and takes the credit. It would be interesting to see how much of the fast offering funds are used.