Houstonians help with Louisiana recovery efforts after Hurricane Delta

HOUSTON — Less than 24 hours after Hurricane Delta made landfall, Houstonians are on the ground helping our storm-ravaged neighbors in southwest Louisiana get back on their feet.

That includes Chris Fontaine with with Disaster Rescue Response Specialist and his rescue crew. Their mantra is, “neighbors helping neighbors.”

“We’re just trying to be there for the homes and families that have already been through so much,” Fontaine said.

Fontaine is the leader and founder of Disaster Rescue Response Specialist, a local rescue group created after Hurricane Harvey.

After helping people devastated by Hurricane Laura several weeks ago, Fontaine and his crew were back on Friday helping the community of Lake Charles get through Hurricane Delta.

“It’s a disaster zone. It’s one of those disaster zones that’s going to stay looking like this for a while,” Fontaine said.

Saturday, they spent the day on the ground, checking on mobile homes, doing welfare checks and assisting people living in a city that’s barely had a chance to recover.

“They’ve worked so hard to get their homes back to be livable from Laura, and here they are again. Almost insult to injury, again,” Fontaine said.

Despite the setback, Fontaine said there is an unseen benefit from Laura. 

“We’re hoping it helps to speed up the recovery from Delta, because some of those organizations are already in place. The channels of getting supplies in are already in place,” Fontaine said.

Efforts all made possible, thanks to their partners like Crowdsource Rescue, another Houston-based relief group created during Harvey that connects people who need help with nearby volunteers during natural disasters.

After helping to dispatch more than 13 rescue teams to Louisiana Friday, including Fontaine ‘s DRRS Corp, on Saturday, volunteers stocked two trailers worth of relief supplies, all bound for Lake Charles.

“We’re trying to bring some tangible supplies and fix tangible needs, but beyond that, we want to let people know that Texas cares about you and that there are complete strangers that love you a lot,” said Matthew Marchetti, co-founder of Crowdsource Rescue.

If you’d like to help our neighbors in Louisiana, both Crowdsource Rescue and Disaster Rescue Response Specialist said they’re always in need of volunteers and monetary donations.

To connect with Crowdsource Rescue, click here.

To connect with Disaster Rescue Response Specialist, click here.