Southwest Louisiana Fearing More Flooding

Rev. Roger Templeton is asking for Christians all over the world to pray for God's guiding hand of mercy in south Louisiana. 

Templeton, who pastors at Welsh Memorial United Methodist Church in Vinton and Maplewood United Methodist Church in Sulphur, experienced the eye wall of Harvey and says the rain "just hasn't stopped."

Adding to the devastating rainfall is news of a controlled release of water from the Toledo Bend Reservoir. 

"I would ask everyone to pray for God's miraculous hand to divert water that is seemingly coming our way," he said Wednesday evening. "We are just hoping and praying that this is not as catastrophic as it was last year."

Just last year, the area experienced what officials described as a '100-year flood event'.

Today, federal officials decided to release water through Toledo Bend to help alleviate flooding in the general region. As a result, five of the eleven gates have opened and nearly 20,000 cubic feet of water is flowing per second. 

Templeton says residents south of Toledo Bend in Vinton, LA area are being told to prepare for flood waters similar to what they experienced a year ago.

"It's just devastating," Templeton says. "Some of those folks are within inches of flooding just from the rainfall of Tropical Storm Harvey. During last year's flood, we were told it was a '100-year event' and here we are about to flood again."

While visiting door-to-door with residents along Highway 109, Templeton says he sat with a family who, just two months ago, had just restored their home following last year's flood. From new doors and floors to new furniture, the home was completely restored, yet here they are preparing for the flood waters to invade yet again. 

"There's just a lot of silence right now, he says. "They're discouraged. I just sit and listen and pray - a lot. Together we are praying that whatever difficulties we have going forward, that we go through them together, hand in hand and with a spirit of love and grace and commitment to being the light of God's love and hope for the world." 
 

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Various churches all across Louisiana are assembling flood buckets to distribute to those impacted by flood waters. 

To see a list of church drop-off locations in your area and for instructions on how to prepare a cleaning kit, please visit this page.

If you would like to donate to the recovery process following Harvey, please visit: www.la-umc.org/harvey