Hackberry: damage, donations, and volunteers

HACKBERRY, La. (KPLC) - Volunteers who come down to help out the community of Hackberry in Cameron Parish say its hard to describe the scene that they are seeing. All they can say is that this area needs help.

“Right now in Hackberry, able bodies are going to be something that we need. We have a lot of elderly here. Not many younger people, but a lot of elderly are going to need a lot of help whenever the cleanup starts,” says Carly Fountain.

Less than an hour from the coast, officials say every building in Hackberry sustained some sort of damage.

Volunteers from across the country are coming to Hackberry to donate and help with cleanup efforts in one of the hardest hit communities.

Food donations have come from Colorado to Shreveport.

A group from Beaumont, Texas say they’ve donated around $100,000 in two days.

Jeff Bavar, who lives in Hackberry and Shreveport, started a fundraiser, “Help for Hackberry”, with his home church Broadmoor Presbyterian.

“It’s a wonderful place and we are going to make it wonderful again. It’s going to take a lot of help though,” Bavar said.

Cameron Parish Police Juror Curtis Fountain added, “right now, we have a lot in route, the things we need is clean up equipment. Shovels, rakes, fire and trash bags, stuff like that. Good tarps. We are getting tarps from FEMA and we do appreciate it, but they are pretty thin.”

Several GoFundMe accounts have been started for Hackberry, as well as donations being accepted at the Community Center.

Officials and volunteers say it’s going to be a long road to recovery.

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