Houma volunteers help Lake Charles post-Delta

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) - Volunteers from Houma, Louisiana traveled to Lake Charles on Tuesday to help distribute supplies necessary to recover from back-to-back hurricanes.

The Krewe of Hyacinthians partnered with the Gordon “Bubba” Dove, Jr. Foundation and Dean Schouest to giveaway cleaning supplies, diapers, medication and more. This is the third time volunteers from the east side of the state came to help Southwest Louisiana.

“We love our people in lake Charles and we just want them to feel the love from Houma, Louisiana,” Shea Cox said.

Cars wrapped around the Vineyard church in Lake Charles on Tuesday morning while a band played live outside. Those who stopped by around 11 a.m. enjoyed a hot meal of homemade cajun jambalaya, which volunteers made for a thousand people.

“We are just here trying to bring some hope back to these people,” Cox said. "It is really special to us to be able to give back to a community who I’m sure in the event of something happening to us, they would do the same thing for us. "

Cox and her krewe members filled tote bags called “Hope Totes.”

“All of the supplies that we put together in our Hyacinthian Hope Totes are things that people will need to clean up in the aftermath."

People who brought their own gas cans received ten gallons of gas and oil to fuel their generators, which Dolores Tovar of Lake Charles appreciated.

“It helps tremendously because we’ve been without power for Laura for sixteen days,” Tovar said. “And now since Delta, we’re still without power. We’re running two generators so it takes about four [gallons] per day to keep them running and we have four combined families living with me, so, it’s gonna go far to help some kids have air condition.”

Little ones had toys to take home.

“I got a toy,” Vladimir, 7, said. “We got food, we thank the community.”

His mom, Elena Miller, said it’s been a ride with two storms, back-to-back. As a single mother, Miller got emotional thinking of her son because schools and parks are closed and she’s unemployed.

“Everybody’s suffering, everybody’s in the same boat," Miller said. "And we’re just so thankful for this community, just even handing out the motor oil for generators and just the goods, the tuna, it’s just a blessing, it really is.”

Demonstrating compassion, volunteers and the community together hope for a brighter future.

“I just think that’s what people in Louisiana do, we just come together,” Rachel Oubre said. "We’re strong and we’re gonna rebuild and make it better.”

Attorney Sye Broussard was also on site to provide free notary services and insurance claim reviews. Although the one-day event is over, Broussard said he’ll come to the area to answer homeowners' questions and make sure insurance companies are doing the “right thing.”

Tuesday’s event took weeks of preparation including collecting donations and holding fundraisers.

Find out how to volunteer or donate here.

Copyright 2020 KPLC. All rights reserved.