Week three away from home

For the third week in a row I haven't been around on Saturday. This week was a clean-up effort in Galveston, Texas. We met here at 2:45 am for the drive up. This time I was blessed with being a passenger. That was a relief because I was pretty tired.

















We were greeted by wild views on our way onto the island. However, the pictures are from on our way out, not in.





We met up at the church at 8:00 for our work assignments. Our first job involved removing downed trees from the back yard and flooded appliances from inside the house. The house had water rise to about 4 feet in it. Everything in the house is ruined and molding. The neighborhood looked like a landfill. Across the street we helped empty a garage and clean a back yard. These pictures show some of the debris littering the curb.


At our second area we moved flooded appliances again, removed wall paneling and moldy sheet rock. This house had water inside to about 5 1/2 feet. The house is built about four feet off the ground! The neighboring house was build ground level and the entire first floor was flooded, clear to the ceiling. The wallboard is all molding and the entire neighbor hoods wreak. We wore masks to help protect us from the mold. We also had rubber gloves to keep our hands clean.



Here the trucks are removing the building debris from the curbs. We were told a separate truck comes by to get the appliances. It was sad to see such conditions, yet amazing to see the resolve of the residence. They rolled up their sleeves and went to work. At this particular place a Lutheran group was busy helping gut another house just down the street.

We had an insurance adjuster stop his car, get out, and come up to thank us for the volunteer work we do. He commented on seeing our yellow shirts all over the town helping clean up the community and just wanted to show appreciation. That was pretty cool!

Here is a story for you. The church building we met at is just a few blocks from the Gulf of Mexico. The church ground is fairly flat, but the church is on a slight mound. That mound was just enough because the surrounding houses flooded, but the church had no water come in! How cool is that.