By james art BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – The Cajun United Navy is in need of volunteers while some of its crew members are still helping those in other states who were devastated by Hurricanes Helena and Milton.
Their new 26,000 square foot facility was filled with donations in just three days. This is the third United Cajun Navy depot in the area.
At first glance, it may look like a warehouse full of things, but these things are salvation for people hundreds of kilometers away. Brian Thrasher is vice president of the United Cajun Navy. He says hundreds, if not thousands, of people still need help.
“They are still pulling people out of the mud. I mean, they’re still finding people who have just pitched tents because they haven’t had any human contact for a few weeks and they’re just surviving the best they can,” Thrasher says. We need volunteers to help us sort, pack, bag and help us load trucks to take it back.
Trascher has been with the United Cajun Navy since 2018. He says he has seen it grow from primarily a search and rescue operation to a permanent logistics operation capable of quickly assisting with disaster relief. Trascher says they’re more than willing to help unfamiliar states because they’ve seen lives in Louisiana ripped away by Mother Nature.
“Think about just losing everything, your house, your clothes, all your memories, everything like that and so they have to start over and you know our job is to get in there until Fema and other government agencies can grow and introduce their programs,” says Thrasher. “We know very well that it can happen to us every year. It happened to them.”
Thrasher says it’s hard to believe how far the United Cajun Navy has come since its conception days, but says it’s just a microcosm of what’s to come in the future.
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