HOUSTON — It’s what neighbors do when there’s a need: lend a helping hand. Outside Lakewood Church in Houston, people dropped off donations and helped pack supplies to send to Louisiana.
Hours after Hurricane Laura’s landfall, Texans were already on the ground in the neighboring state ready to help.
“There is absolute destruction. It is trees down, houses destroyed, businesses and buildings torn apart," said Luke Tarbutton, a volunteer from Lufkin.
He deployed through Houston’s CrowdSource Rescue, an organization dispatching citizen first responders to the front lines.
“If you have the means, capability and equipment to help, it’s your duty to help," Tarbutton said.
It's a need we saw firsthand talking to evacuees in Houston.
“It’s gone. It’s gone," said Becky Peterson, a Lake Charles resident and one of 70 people who spent the night The Forge for Families in The Third Ward, a Red Cross shelter.
“I have to give the Texas-Louisiana region kudos for just being proactive. They are reaching out to try to figure out people’s needs,” said Dana Thomas, executive director at The Forge.
They are needs being meet by a city that knows what it’s like to be on the other side of a storm.
“I’m just grateful we had a place to go, a nice place, and we were taken care of," Peterson said.
Houston rapper Trae tha Truth is putting a call out on social media for supplies. His group @ReliefGang is meeting at 9 a.m. Friday at Buc-ee's in Baytown to head to Louisiana.