Volunteers Clean Up Damage After Hurricane Laura
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By Destinee Patterson | August 29, 2020 at 8:58 PM CDT – Updated August 29 at 10:27 PM
SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) –
Volunteers met up on Saturday for another day of cleaning up their community following Hurricane Laura.
Groups of about 20 people split up across Shreveport to move trees and debris from roadways and homes.
“You have a group of strangers that come up and completely take out a $15,000 job, and it costs you nothing,” Tommy Giles, co-founder of the Shreveport Volunteer Network, said.
The charity organization led the volunteer effort on Saturday. Giles said he and his co-founder Keith Bryant also helped clear trees after a storm swept through the area in June 2019.
“We just rented a skid steer and went after it,” Giles said.
When Hurricane Laura hit the community this week, the only difference was the number of volunteers who wanted to do their part to help their neighbors.
“With the amount of people we have volunteering – and these are just people who showed up – this one here took about 35 minutes,” Giles said.
He and his crew of about 20 volunteers quickly cleared a large tree from the middle of a Shreveport road.
Rhonda Moore, Chief of Office Administrations for Shreveport Permits and Inspections, also supported the volunteers. She said people should not hesitate to ask for help, even if they live outside of Shreveport.
“I think it’s very important that we’re all coming together as citizens of the city of Shreveport,” she said. “Some of these people are not from Shreveport. They’re from Keithville or maybe Bossier. Shreveport Volunteer Network doesn’t just help people in Shreveport. They go all over the place.”
To submit a request or find information on volunteering, visit the Shreveport Volunteer Network website.
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