WALKER, La. (AP) – Chuck and Karen Craft are among the thousands of Louisiana residents dragging furniture, appliances and other belongings out of flood-ravaged homes.
Married more than 35 years, the Crafts live outside Walker, a small town near Baton Rouge. Chuck Craft said they thanked God that their family survived and had “a good, long cry” about their irreparable home. Now, they’re trying to salvage photos of their four children and 16 grandchildren.
“I guess God wanted me to de-clutter,” Chuck Craft, 57, joked Sunday. “I was too pig-headed to do it.”
Outside Walker, the rural Baptist church the Crafts attend has become an oasis for flood victims.
As waters rose amid torrential rains earlier this month, National Guard rescue crews dropped people off at South Walker Baptist Church because it sits on a ridge of relatively high ground in Livingston Parish near Baton Rouge. Even as flooding has receded in recent days, the church – like many other places across hard-hit south Louisiana – has continued providing sustenance for the body and soul.