When the rains came to Varnado on March 11, John Nathaniel had never seen anything like it.

Nathaniel said he’d lived in his home on Foster Town Road since 1997 and since that time, there had been heavy rains. Once, in 2009, he even got a couple of feet of water in his house.

Not this time.

“My house made the six o’clock news,” said Nathaniel.

Well, his roof did. All the rest of it was underwater.

Hundreds of miles east from Bogalusa, in North Carolina, Kevin B. Henry was hearing on social media what was happening in his hometown. Henry had left Bogalusa shortly after Katrina, but he grew up here and he has family in town and he watched with concern as the water rose.

At some point that day, Henry realized he should do something more than watch.

Henry is a minister in a North Carolina and he began thinking that he and his congregation could make a difference to someone in Bogalusa.

“I got with the church congregation and we started sewing seeds,” Henry said.

In total, he raised $1,100. On Friday, he intended to hand out $550 to two homeowners at his sister’s clothing store, Unique Fashions.

Henry’s sister, Sheila Bullard, helped her brother pick two families in the Bogalusa area to split the money raised.

“We looked into the community and found these were two victims whose houses were completely underwater,” Bullard said.

However, at an informal ceremony at Unique Fashions, only Nathaniel showed up. Henry said he’s not sure what he will do with the rest of the money.

Nathaniel meanwhile is now living with his in-laws, and he said the money will help, as he lost everything.

“We got totally wiped out,” Nathaniel said. “We left home at four in the morning with what we had on,” he said.