The devastation of Louisiana's record flooding became real for Timmy Toups on Saturday as he scrolled through his Facebook feed. Toups, an electrician living south of New Orleans, realized this wasn’t like Hurricane Katrina. These folks didn’t know to evacuate.
“These people don’t flood,” Toups said.
Not normally, anyway. “They live on high ground. Probably most of them don’t even have flood insurance. People were crying for help on Facebook, just putting out any call for help.”
So Toups, 35, decided to lend a hand. He found a babysitter that night for his kid (his wife works nights as a nurse) and began contacting friends. By 9 a.m. Sunday, he and two friends rolled out in his truck with a fishing boat in tow and no plan but to help people in need.
By the end of Monday, Toups said he found himself with 20-some other volunteer rescuers whose boats sailed through murky floodwaters to deliver supplies and rescue those trapped after the storm that claimed at least 11 lives and left more than 40,000 homes damaged. It is some of the worst flooding in Louisiana history.
