A group of local people from the Covington Baptist Association will head to Louisiana to help with cleanup and recovery next weekend.

Leroy Cole of the Covington Baptist Association explained that there are four different response teams that can be utilized – chaplain support, laundry units, chainsaw cleanup and recovery and mud out cleanup recovery.

Cole explained that the chaplains are trained for two and a half days of training and work one-on-one with victims and give support.

Cole said that the Covington Baptist Association has one of three laundry units in the state.

Currently two units are stationed in Louisiana – one in Zachary and one in Denham Springs.

“The one in Zachary has washed and dried 137 loads of clothes since they have been there,” Cole said, who is the state laundry coordinator. “They one in Denham Springs has done about that many.”

Cole said each unit has three or four washers and three or four dryers.

The local washing unit has not been dispatched yet, he said.

The other two cleanup crews are for cutting down limbs, etc. ,a and tearing out houses destroyed by floods.

There are 7,000 trained Alabama Baptist disaster relief workers.

Cole said the Baptists will be in Lousisana through the recovery and rebuilding efforts.

Additionally, Cole said if a hurricane does blow through the South next week, it would cause more chaos.

“We would have to divert some of our help back over here,” he said. “And it really doesn’t need to hit Baton Rouge.”

Anyone who wishes to donate to the disaster relief can do so by going online to sbdr.org/lousianafloodrelief/ or send a check to: Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions, P.O. Box 11870, Montgomery, AL 36111 and mark it for Louisiana Flood Relief.

Cole also cautioned people who want to help to ensure that they have a receiving point before collecting supplies and donations for those in flood-ravaged areas.