Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News
Email: mrodriguez@wwltv.com | Twitter: @mrodriguezwwl
LAPLACE, La.-- Travis Johnson remembers in detail what he saw when he and his family first returned to their LaPlace home after Hurricane Isaac.
"They still had water on the streets," Johnson said. "When we got to the house, the whole front ceiling, not the whole thing, but it caved in from the roof damage."
Their home of two and half years was heavily damaged by both wind and floodwater.
"It's just been day by day -- a little bit at a time," Johnson said. "There's a lot"
Mark Bradford is a volunteer from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
"Water came in from both above and from below in this house," Bradford said.
He drove more than 500 miles, from his home in Sugar Hill, Ga., to help gut homes here.
"This is where the storm was and we want to go where the need is," Bradford said.
He is one of 1,000 Mormons, from all over the southeast, who traveled to southeast Louisiana in the past two weeks to help homeowners deal with Isaac's aftermath.
"It's just something you feel," said Richard Jacobs with Mormon Helping Hands. "I can't explain it. I knew I had to come here."
With hundreds of volunteers on hand, through "Mormon Helping Hands," self-sufficiency is in order -- including figuring out how to provide your own housing. Volunteers brought their own tents with them. It is a message of self-sufficiency, imparted to the volunteers before they head this way.
"Come with all the food and water that you'll need, all of your equipment that you'll need to do this kind of work and be completely self-sustaining," said Rulon McKay of Mormon Helping Hands.
So far, those efforts have led Mormon Helping Hands to gut 400 homes. Another 300 homes are expected to be done by the end of this weekend, including Travis Johnson's house.
"I just want to thank everybody," he said. "Every little bit counts."
Depending on how many work orders they receive, Mormon Helping Hands said they will be working in several parishes through at least next weekend.
For information on how to sign up for their assistance, call their Hurricane Isaac Disaster Relief Command Center at (504) 885-3936.
