Baton Rouge ‘pulling together’
Working to provide relief for the flood-ravaged victims of Baton Rouge, La., Captain Joshua Robinett, head of The Salvation Army in Hot Springs, said it was “a real eye opener” to see how much the community pulled together to help each other in their time of need.
Robinett, who returned Tuesday from a two-week deployment to the Southern city, said, “You remember before the flooding, there were those police officers shot. It was the same thing we were seeing across the country. But when the flood happened, all that stopped.
“You just saw people coming together. Different races, different religions, different socioeconomic backgrounds, all pulling together. In some ways, not that I would wish a flood on anybody, but you would see the flood bringing people together, and if you are a person of faith
as we are, you see how God works something good out of a disaster.
“We are so divided in this country so that was a real eye opener to see,” he said.
Robinett said he worked 90 hours a week while there, with no days off, arriving on site at 6:45 a.m. each day and sometimes not leaving until 8 p.m. “My job was to make sure they were getting the food and resources to the right places to be cooked. Then our mobile feeding units would take those meals out to the neighborhoods and serve them.”
When he first arrived in Baton Rouge, The Salvation Army was providing an average of 7,000 meals a day to the victims, but he said that number has been cut almost in half, down to about 3,800 a day. “That’s a good thing,” he said. “That shows progress is being made.”
He said they were in the process of transitioning to a long-term recovery stage. “What that entails, is that where insurance and FEMA fall short, organizations like The Salvation Army, who the public has made financial contributions to, are able to help get the people back into their homes and all that good stuff.”
While some people have returned to their homes, he said some decided to relocate, especially after the city of Baton Rouge announced they were requiring everyone to lift their houses 4 feet to mitigate future flooding. “Some of them are walking away and choosing to just relocate,” he said.
He noted a lot were now staying in hotels and motels where they were able to get meals provided there and some restaurants and other businesses have reopened as the water receded.
But the signs of the flood are still everywhere, he said, noting, “In the neighborhoods, all the houses are gutted. By the sidewalks, you would just see piles and piles of debris and trash, things that were destroyed in the home. Just piled up for the trash people to pick up.”
In addition to feeding victims, Robinett said they had 250 families a day coming in for other types of assistance, such as clothing, shoes and hygiene and cleanup kits which they distributed daily.
“We had some real neat donors,” he said, such as Jimmy Jazz, a clothing and retail store based in the Northeast. He said the president of the company came down from New Jersey to volunteer and did “a big walk-through” of the damaged areas. His company then donated 3,000 pairs of shoes and 1,500 items of clothing.
“We’re talking brand-new, $100 pairs of shoes,” Robinett said, “and clothing brand-new from their stores. They had a couple of truckloads they sent down.” He said when Hurricane Sandy hit in the Northeast, they were impacted by all the flooding and The Salvation Army was there.
“(The president) said when he heard about what was happening in Baton Rouge, he wanted to help,” he said. “It was neat to see people from all across the country coming together especially since this disaster didn’t have quite the media coverage as some others.”
Robinett said The Salvation Army partnered with Southern Baptists who had their own disaster team and did all the cooking for their field kitchen, which “is the size of an eighteen-wheeler trailer” with four convection ovens and other equipment.
Mountain Valley Water and J.B. Hunt Transport Inc. teamed up to donate more than 3,200 gallons of water, which Robinett said they used to fill the field kitchen’s 350 gallon tank, “so we could clean our dishes and other things.”
He noted, “I got there and discovered someone else from Hot Springs had beat me there.”
He said while the additional Salvation Army personnel who have come down to help may not be needed after September, “it’s important for people to know The Salvation Army is not leaving” and will be there for the long-term recovery.
“The local Salvation Army there will take that on if they can and if they still need help, we’ll send more teams in.”
He said The Salvation Army of Greater Baton Rouge had 11 buildings and 10 of them got flooded, including one that provided transitional housing for men going through rehabilitation. “They actually had to be high water rescued, “he said. “They lost all their stuff. The local group who have met the needs of the people there for years were heavily impacted.”
He said the only building that didn’t get flooded was the group’s chapel. “It’s a real neat story,” he said. “They’ve got a good team and their captains are on top of things. The Salvation Army isn’t going anywhere.”
Robinett said he would like to organize a list of potential volunteers here to be ready if a disaster strikes in Hot Springs or a nearby community. “The Hot Springs Salvation Army is ready to respond. We have a mobile feeding unit, but I would love to have multiple teams ready to deploy.”
Anyone wishing to volunteer can contact Robinett at the local office at 501-623-1628. Those who want to help the flood victims can continue to donate monetarily by texting STORM to 51555, by visiting http://give.salvationarmyusa.org/ gulf_coast_floods, or by calling 800-SAL-ARMY to donate by phone.