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Helping, not helpless: Food cart owner donating to Louisiana victims Keila Theiss of Keila's Arepas is donating part of her profits from growers-market sales to flood victims in Louisiana. Mail Tribune / Denise Baratta Wednesday Aug 17, 2016 at 5:09 PM Aug 17, 2016 at 6:13 PM Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune A Rogue Valley food-cart vendor is hoping to help victims of flooding in Louisiana by donating a portion of sales from her pork-and-veggie-filled corn griddle cakes. Keila Theiss, a Sams Valley farmer who recently opened one of the region's newest food carts, Keila's Arepas, said she felt helpless watching news reports on the flooding. A Louisiana native, Theiss grew up between the cities of Thibodaux and Baton Rouge, attending classes at Louisiana State University and training and working in restaurants around the region to develop her culinary skills. Theiss sells Venezuelan arepas, a corn griddle cake filled with meats and vegetables. Theiss said watching news reports of the floodwaters has been "heartbreaking." Flooding began Friday when 2 feet of rain inundated the southern part of the state over a 48-hour period, leaving houses and businesses underwater. Reports by The Associated Press tallied some 30,000 people rescued since flooding began, while FEMA reported 40,000 people signed up for assistance after 12 parishes received a federal disaster declaration. In Livingston Parish, an area with about 138,000 people, an official estimated that 75 percent of the homes were a total loss. The Red Cross Cascades Region (Oregon and southwest Washington) has sent seven disaster responders to Louisiana, with more on the way. According to the Weather Channel, the region is experiencing a rare phenomenon known as an “inland tropical depression,” which has dumped more rain on Louisiana in a matter of days than all of Los Angeles received in the last three years combined. Theiss decided to donate a dollar from each sandwich-drink combination sold from her cart to help her mother buy needed supplies for victims of the floods. "My mom's a real estate agent, so obviously she doesn't have much she can do for work right now, so she's been out helping people. Internet and phone service isn't good right now, so she's been calling me and I've been looking online to help tell them how to get around the floodwaters," Theiss said, noting that her fundraiser began Sunday with the outdoor market in Jacksonville. Theiss sells her arepas at three growers markets in the region — Sundays in Jacksonville, Tuesdays in Ashland and Thursdays at Medford's Hawthorne Park. For every customer who buys a sandwich and drink — her signature pineapple limeade with coconut sugar — Theiss said she will contribute $1 to help flood victims. She's hopeful for additional donations for her home state. "Every house and every apartment I ever lived in when I was there are all flooded. It's just devastating," she said. "The middle school I went to is full of water. ... One of my friends said the water is so high that when they went to check on their house, they couldn't even see the chimney. I just felt like I had to try and do something to try to help." Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford. Email her at [email protected].