The floodwaters in Louisiana are beginning to recede, revealing thousands of homes and businesses destroyed by over 2 feet of rain in 2 days. More than 20,000 were rescued. Churches not swallowed up by water opened their doors as Red Cross shelters and national relief organisations rolled up their sleeves to help with the clean-up. First Baptist Church in Zachary, the only church in the area sufficiently dry and equipped to become an overnight shelter, is welcoming flood victims to its Family Life Centre. Leaders took donations, organised rooms of clothing and bedding, and set up a games room for children and a medical station for volunteer doctors and nurses who offered to help. The Red Cross helped set up showers, cots, and kitchen systems. Many other churches in the area are surveying and fixing damaged homes. Repair teams have been ripping out soaked drywall and accessing homes where ‘water went all the way up to the ceiling’.