HARVEY UPDATE - Labor Day
Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2017 4:24 pm
On Sunday our pastor at River Pointe Church in Richmond called for a work day on Labor Day to help victims of Hurricane Harvey. Susan gave me a "look" that meant I was definitely going to be one of the volunteers. I jumped out of bed this morning (not exactly) and heading over to the church at 7:30 AM.
I was surprised to see ~800 volunteers show up on Monday morning at church with work gloves and tools.
We were divided into 35 teams of 20+ people, so over 700 volunteers were sent out to help people recover from the flooding of Hurricane Harvey. I was on Team #23 and we had 23 people in our group. After our team leader Alex told us the rules and what to expect, we loaded into five pickups that were all jacked up with about three feet of ground clearance. We were being sent to the Katy area west of Houston (Hwy 99 and Fry Road). When we arrived I quickly knew why we were sent in the big pickups; water was still about 2 feet deep in the streets. As we approached the street of our assignments, I noticed two 6-8 foot long alligators swimming about 20 feet to our right. Our assigned house was on the next street. It is not a good idea to leave small pets out around here these days because they may become "Gator Bait">
The streets in our assigned areas still have over a foot of brown smelly water in them and the water did not recede while we were there. Despite no rain for several days the water is not going down because the Corp of Engineers is releasing water from lakes upstream.
Our assigned house was home to two River Pointe Church members in their late 60s. Bob had a stroke a few years ago and he needs a wheel chair to get around. They'd only had a about six inches of water in the home, but it is hard to describe how bad and extensive the damage is. They were extremely happy to see us show up. Finally, they had HOPE that their lives could get back to normal. There is NO WAY that these two people could deal with this situation on their own. What a helpless feeling that must be.
All of the homes on the street had 6-6 inches of water in them, but the water pulled back to the sidewalk area and yesterday was the first time they could get into their homes. Brown smelly water had been sitting in their homes for four days.
Our team spread out and worked on four homes on the street. I helped rip out sheet rock from two homes. We removed the bottom three feet of sheet rock in all four homes. The piles of trash in the streets is approximately four feet high in front of each home. Most of the homes will not be "livable" for months. All we did was get out water logged sheet rock, insulation, wood cabinets, flooring and furniture that cannot be saved. This allows the home to dry out, so new sheet rock and flooring can be put in. It will take at least two weeks to dry out. Over 100,000 homes are like this in the Houston area, so the amount of trash that needs to be hauled off is incredible. Think about each home needing at least one big dump truck of trash hauled off.
All we really did was clean out the homes so they could dry out. Getting them back to "livable" will take months.
I am proud of our church and I am proud of the people of Houston and the surrounding areas. We are not going to sit around and hope the government takes care of this mess. Texans are hard working people with lots of pride. We are going to recover and be stronger for it.
I want to thank all of you that donated to Tina Sansone's charity ( http://www.friendsofvince.com/ ) Sam & Tina's home had three feet of water in it.
Please donate to the charity above. 100% of the money goes to help the children of Richmond, Texas. Richmond is next to the Brazos River that peaked at an all-time record crest and it is still at MAJOR FLOOD STAGE today. There are areas of Richmond were the homes are actually gone. A women in my work group today told me that she is helping two families that lived in trailer homes. Their homes have washed down the river and their cars and trucks are totaled. They literally have nothing.
Count your blessings because what we have accumulate in this world can all be washed away. We are blessed to live in America where the people take care of each other.
I was surprised to see ~800 volunteers show up on Monday morning at church with work gloves and tools.
We were divided into 35 teams of 20+ people, so over 700 volunteers were sent out to help people recover from the flooding of Hurricane Harvey. I was on Team #23 and we had 23 people in our group. After our team leader Alex told us the rules and what to expect, we loaded into five pickups that were all jacked up with about three feet of ground clearance. We were being sent to the Katy area west of Houston (Hwy 99 and Fry Road). When we arrived I quickly knew why we were sent in the big pickups; water was still about 2 feet deep in the streets. As we approached the street of our assignments, I noticed two 6-8 foot long alligators swimming about 20 feet to our right. Our assigned house was on the next street. It is not a good idea to leave small pets out around here these days because they may become "Gator Bait">
The streets in our assigned areas still have over a foot of brown smelly water in them and the water did not recede while we were there. Despite no rain for several days the water is not going down because the Corp of Engineers is releasing water from lakes upstream.
Our assigned house was home to two River Pointe Church members in their late 60s. Bob had a stroke a few years ago and he needs a wheel chair to get around. They'd only had a about six inches of water in the home, but it is hard to describe how bad and extensive the damage is. They were extremely happy to see us show up. Finally, they had HOPE that their lives could get back to normal. There is NO WAY that these two people could deal with this situation on their own. What a helpless feeling that must be.
All of the homes on the street had 6-6 inches of water in them, but the water pulled back to the sidewalk area and yesterday was the first time they could get into their homes. Brown smelly water had been sitting in their homes for four days.
Our team spread out and worked on four homes on the street. I helped rip out sheet rock from two homes. We removed the bottom three feet of sheet rock in all four homes. The piles of trash in the streets is approximately four feet high in front of each home. Most of the homes will not be "livable" for months. All we did was get out water logged sheet rock, insulation, wood cabinets, flooring and furniture that cannot be saved. This allows the home to dry out, so new sheet rock and flooring can be put in. It will take at least two weeks to dry out. Over 100,000 homes are like this in the Houston area, so the amount of trash that needs to be hauled off is incredible. Think about each home needing at least one big dump truck of trash hauled off.
All we really did was clean out the homes so they could dry out. Getting them back to "livable" will take months.
I am proud of our church and I am proud of the people of Houston and the surrounding areas. We are not going to sit around and hope the government takes care of this mess. Texans are hard working people with lots of pride. We are going to recover and be stronger for it.
I want to thank all of you that donated to Tina Sansone's charity ( http://www.friendsofvince.com/ ) Sam & Tina's home had three feet of water in it.
Please donate to the charity above. 100% of the money goes to help the children of Richmond, Texas. Richmond is next to the Brazos River that peaked at an all-time record crest and it is still at MAJOR FLOOD STAGE today. There are areas of Richmond were the homes are actually gone. A women in my work group today told me that she is helping two families that lived in trailer homes. Their homes have washed down the river and their cars and trucks are totaled. They literally have nothing.
Count your blessings because what we have accumulate in this world can all be washed away. We are blessed to live in America where the people take care of each other.