Editor’s note: This story has been updated since its original publication to reflect the revised monetary goal of GoFundMe campaign set up for John Schneider studios and to correct the spelling of the group of supporters who set up the page.
Former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider and some helpers spent this morning cleaning and vacuuming dirt, silt, sand and water out his movie studio compound in Holden, Louisiana.
Schneider’s studios, located on a 58-acre camp once home to Camp Singing Water, a summer camp, is among 464 structures in Livingston Parish damaged by flooding from recent heavy rains, according to the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. The figure is the latest number GOHSEP had as of 9 a.m. today, agency spokesman Mike Steele says in an email.
The state was battered by severe weather last week. The White House approved Gov. John Bel Edwards’ request to expand a federal disaster declaration to include 16 additional parishes impacted by record flooding and severe weather.
Schneider says he wasn’t home when the flooding started Friday night and continued into Saturday. In a video posted on his studio’s Facebook page, he says the situation has been devastating. Supporters and others working at the studios helped save pictures, tables, editing equipment, some electronic and other items from water damage.
“We got home and found an inch and change of dirt and silt and mud all over everything. It was quite devastating, especially the sound equipment and lighting—that’s a big issue,” Schneider says.
A barn on the property had about 4 feet of water, he says. A mess hall, built on higher ground, had 2 feet of water. The structure houses his production office and gym and functions as a sleep quarters for visitors. Mattresses in the mess hall didn’t get wet, but their box springs did, he says. Sand has settled on a baseball field on the property and in a driveway.
“This is a business,” Schneider says. “This takes everything that I make from everything that I do all year. We’re building a studio out here. It needs lights, sound equipment, cameras. It’s already a whole lot of money.” Camera equipment at the studio was spared, he says.
According to a GoFundMe page, set up by a group of friends and supporters, Schneider purchased the property several years ago after filming the movie Smothered there. He developed the property into an independent film studio and a residence where he also lives. Daily Report previously reported that John Schneider Studios boasts a 5,000-square foot soundstage, two homes and large swimming pool.
Schneider says he doesn’t personally run the GoFundMe account and didn’t set it up. The people behind it, whom he calls the Pseuper Krew, established it on his behalf.
The GoFundMe campaign seeks to raise $180,000 to help Schneider rebuild. As of 2:15 p.m. today, the campaign has raised $8,055, but not everyone supports it. Some people on the campaign’s page say the actor should be able to hold his own given his profession.
“People have a picture about what a celebrity’s life and a celebrity’s checkbook is like, and they’re usually wrong,” Schneider says. “Everything that comes in, goes out.”
Schneider, a cast member on the OWN Network’s The Have and The Have Nots, says the property isn’t insured for the flooding. But so far, he says, the response from the campaign has been overwhelmingly positive.
In the meantime, film work is continuing there and the residence, which did not flood, is now the studios’ headquarters.
—Alexandria Burris
