BEAUMONT, Texas — A church in Beaumont is reaching across the state line to help out neighbors in Southwest Louisiana.
Starting early Thursday morning, volunteers with Beaumont's First Baptist Church went to First Baptist Church of Westlake in Louisiana. The church plans to send more teams to help with hurricane relief next week, organizers said.
"It's weird being on the other end of this," youth pastor Nate Jordan said.
The Jordan family's house flooded during Tropical Storm Harvey. Beaumont's First Baptist Church organized volunteer teams to mudout houses after both Tropical Storms Harvey and Imelda.
After Tropical Storm Harvey, the church organized a restoration effort for weeks after Tropical Storm Harvey hit Southeast Texas in August 2017. Many of the church's members worked with volunteers from Louisiana and Georgia connected to relief teams across a network of Baptist churches nationwide. By mid-October 2017—two months after Harvey made landfall—volunteers helped with 70 homes and treated 20 houses with ShockWave, executive pastor Mark Adams said in a 2017 interview.
Now volunteers headed over to Louisiana to help their neighbors in places hardest hit by Laura.
Lead pastor Christopher Moody has experience volunteering with hurricane relief after Hurricane Rita in 2005. He told the volunteer group not to remove trees on houses until insurance companies can document the damages.
Several men with chainsaws helped cut fallen trees near one house into smaller logs, while Moody used his tractor to move them toward the road.
Anyone wanting to volunteer to help should call the church office at (409) 833-1426.
PHOTOS: Devastation from Hurricane Laura in Southwest Louisiana
