On the Ground: Visiting Flood-Affected Louisiana

Sept 29, 2016 | CERF+ News

When it comes to comprehending the aftermath of a disaster, seeing is believing. That’s why CERF+ is committed to meeting with local arts organizations and artists who’ve been impacted by disasters to understand their needs, offer support and to bear witness to their struggles.

Eddie Bernard, CERF+ board member, owner of Wet Dog Glass and a Hurricane Katrina survivor, recently visited the flood-affected areas of Louisiana, meeting with artists and organizations along the way. “On August 12, 2016, Baton Rouge was hit with an unprecedented amount of rainfall that brought the equivalent of 7.1 trillion gallons of water… an amount that could fill Lake Pontchartrain four times,” Bernard said.” The damage caused by the floods is spread over several hundred square miles in more than twenty of Louisiana’s 64 parishes.” While there, Eddie met with representatives from the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge and Louisiana Division of the Arts and learned about their collaborative work with other Gulf Coast-based organizations to address the present and future needs of those communities, which are so susceptible to natural disasters. Note that CERF+ continues to hear and respond to artists in Louisiana who suffered devastating losses in these floods.