Diana Moore Reports From Baton Rouge
by Richard D'Ambrosio /Photo: USDA
Diana Moore is a luxury travel advisor at Perfect Pairings Travel, Baton Rouge, LA, an independent affiliate of Largay Travel. Agencies like hers are still struggling to recover from the devastating floods last month in Baton Rouge. A regional ASTA chapter has set up a fundraising initiative to help the city recover.
This is Diana’s report from Baton Rouge:
Most everyone in Baton Rouge has been impacted, either directly or indirectly, by the floods. I read somewhere the other day that there are two kinds of people in Baton Rouge—wet ones trying to put the pieces together, and dry ones helping the wet ones out!
That truly sums it up for our community. Personally, my home was not impacted; however, my parents' home of 40+ years flooded for the first time ever. It has been an ordeal to sift through 40 years of living and sort the salvageable from the unsalvageable; to remove saturated carpeting, sheetrock and insulation; and then try to dry things out and eliminate any mold growth before the rebuilding process begins.
The home of my business partner, Myrna Arroyo, and her husband, Lance Roux, flooded as well. They have removed all their salvageable possessions and placed them in storage. They hired a contractor to handle the demolition process. And now are waiting to see if FEMA will assist in the rebuilding of their home.
The truly sad part about this ordeal is that the majority of the homes that flooded were not located in the 100-year flood plain and were not required to have flood insurance.
Consequently, most are uninsured for this particular type of loss. We are relying on the federal government and the support of churches and kind people from across the country to provide assistance. Normally, in Louisiana, when someone needs help there are plenty of people in the community ready to offer a helping hand. This time EVERYONE needs help!
We are all tired, a bit dirty, and ready to return to some sense of normal....But that may be a while.
And then, of course, our business. It is truly difficult to encourage people to even consider traveling when they do not know if they have the funds to rebuild their homes. I have personally put most of my plans for promotion of group trips on hold until the community heals a bit more.
We will graciously accept any help that ASTA can offer. My host agency in Connecticut, Largay Travel, just sent us Home Depot gift cards to contribute to the rebuilding process. Contributions like that go a long way.