The disaster is there. The dire need for help is there.

The shattered lives are there and the pain and suffering that often rides shotgun with natural disasters is there.

For thousands of families in the greater Baton Rouge area, the rain simply would not end. The waters simply would not stop rising, and the toll of the disaster does not seem to stop adding up.

We have learned of 13 killed in the disaster caused when unrelenting tropical rains rolled through south Louisiana, dumping nearly 30 inches of rain on already rain soaked areas.

Officials with the Corps of Engineers have called the event a “1,000-year storm,” and for those who have fallen victim to these disaster, recovery may very well feel like a 1,000 years.

That is where we come in. That is where those of us who are called to help must now step up and lend the helping hand that so thankfully is often the hallmark of such recoveries.

We have seen local churches and organizations begin to rally together, pull together needed supplies and muster recovery teams that will soon head to south Louisiana to clean mud from flooded homes, serve meals to those who are hungry and clothe those who have lost everything.

This disaster may not have received the attention of Hurricane Katrina, itself a major hurricane that cut a devastating swath out of the central Gulf Coast.

But, this disaster is no less horrific and tragic to the families of those who were killed and those who now must fight and claw their way back to a sense of normalcy.

Recovering from this flood will not be easy for the Baton Rouge area and the thousands of families who are now homeless; many of who did not carry flood insurance on their homes and belongings.

John Wesley, the father of Methodism, may have made it very clear to us our job now when he said, “Do all the good you can. By all the means you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”