On October 4, I joined about 20 members and families of our church, and 350 others from other Lutheran churches in our area, to help out in Galveston. It was an interesting day to say the least. Thankfully, no incidents of injury or accidents. Pretty incredible devastation and it will be a long time before things will return to normal there. Months if not a year or more, I bet. Most were without power, though we encountered a few got theirs back thirty minutes before we met them.
The first forty minutes or so we spent cleaning up a park of debris. Pretty easy work actually because we had about fifty people there. Then we split up and started walking the neighborhood looking to help. We didn’t have to go far - about 100 feet. The next hour and a half was spent helping a father and son clean out their garage. It was a total mess - clothes soaked in sea water, toys, keepsakes, TV’s, video games, and kinds of things - and the worst of it was a freezer full of spoiled food and maggots. The stench was unbelievable. In fact, I gagged so badly at one point I went into the dry heaves for about two minutes and couldn’t stop. The smell is still in my nostrils 10 hours later. I don’t know when it will disappear.
After that, we had some lunch and then went to one of the local churches where we found half of the volunteers. Most of the heavy work had been done before we arrived, so we decided to leave and walk some more neighborhoods and help out. Many refused our help, saying they had little for us to do....but thankful we were there and offered help. We helped a couple of houses with some minor pickup and moving furniture before settling in to one last house where we did some pretty heavy duty work ripping out tile flooring, cabinets, sheetrock, and linoleum. It was back breaking work....but very gratifying. Sadly, we only had a couple hours to help there, but we could have easily worked another six. The house was for all intents and purposes being totally gutted.
The most striking images that I remember were the numbers of dead trees, plants and shrubs.....dying from their submersion in salt water that surged ashore....not the wind. There were any number of boats, some as large as 60 feet long, strewn along I-45, nowhere near water. Most houses had at least 36 inches of water in them, and in most places cars were completely submerged and totaled, just waiting for the insurance adjusters. Refrigerators, freezers, stoves, TV sets, all kinds of appliances were stacked on the street waiting for pick up, as well as all kinds of carpeting, tree debris, etc.
Amazingly, the attitudes of most of the people we encountered were upbeat and positive. They really impressed me. It was a really great experience and I’m glad I went down there. Just pray for all those who were so unfortunate....and count your blessings that you are not having to deal with what they are dealing with both at home and at work...
As Bill said before, after finishing up at Jones park, we headed to a house near the park where the owners needed our help cleaning out their garage behind their home. I couldn’t believe the odor 5 feet from the entrance of the garage. I’ve never actually seen so much mold before and the impact of the storm on this one building just seemed devastating. However, what caught my eye was the loft above the garage. While the surge hadn’t risen high enough to reach the loft, the loft seemed very well intact. The bed was fine as well as the windows. After seeing so much debris and destruction of buildings on the way in, this one sight gave me hope that Galveston can, and is, recovering from Ike.
Later in the afternoon after ripping out moldy sheetrock from a home for about 2-3 hours, I gathered up my things to leave with a feeling of satisfaction and pride. While I could have stayed home to work in lab that day as a graduate student, I am grateful for having the opportunity to help the people around me in a way that was needed and also appreciated. This experience gave me something more than peace and a feeling of kindness, it gave me an emotional connection to the the people we helped after giving them food or leaving their home after cleaning up debris.
One moment that stuck out the most for me was Pr. Brad’s prayer after we helped the owners of the home near Jones park. While Pr. Brad was praying for the owners, I found my eyes starting to water with tears. It’s been awhile since I’ve felt so much overwhelming happiness over the ability to help those in need. After those few moments, I finally understood what we feel in the community of Christ after helping those around us. It is a feeling unlike any other and truly incredible. I’m sure the others felt the same as I did and I am so happy to have been able to take part in such a wonderful opportunity.
People were very grateful for our help and despite the fact that we were completely tearing out everything within 4 feet of the floor level, I would say that most people’s outlook was one of hope for the future.
Our first assignment was to clean the leaf and limb debris from Jones Park which was in the vicinity of Zion Lutheran. We then sought out Joe next to the park and helped him clean out the ground floor of his garage apartment. Our group prayed with Joe, fed him and then moved on to Saint Paul’s Lutheran about the time that they were depositing all of their pews at the curb for removal. They appeared to be well staffed so we moved on, landing in one of the most devastated residential areas of town. This is where we randomly encountered the Rev. Helen Appelberg, an Episcopal priest. To my amazement Helen appeared to be very familiar with CTK and knew many members of our congregation. In addition to being a very nice person, her spirit and resilience was shocking. Work was in progress on Helen’s home and our group joined in.
Before long Helen appeared with a variety of cold drinks from Starbucks for the entire group. Helen’s neighbor had a refrigerator at the curb with the notation “For God’s Sake, Do Not Open This Door.” Around 4 p.m. we departed Helen’s home for Houston.
The 5 Salas members volunteered at the Galveston Island State Park in the Galveston Bay Foundations’ clean up day on Saturday, October 18. We slogged through the swampy parts, fought our way through the brambles and branches and hauled out trash from the State Park campsites. We had been warned about snakes and flies, and sure enough got to see and avoid a couple of water moccasins who were not happy at being disturbed in their new homes. Federico and Martin did some of the heavier stuff like pulling out parts of a roof, siding, doors, boards, and shelves with help from some really nice guys who had come from the Dallas. Andrea helped another family move one of the snakes out of the way, and fought her way in and out of thick underbrush to discard pails and other containers of toxic chemicals. Sebastian was busy carrying plastic patio furniture, toys and other household goods out to the pile of debris that was growing quickly on the side of the park road. Donna worked on untwisting plastic bags from the limbs of trees as well as moving tires and lots of unrecognizable items out of the thicket.
It was a beautiful day, and all the more difficult to understand how such a lovely place could now be such a slum, as that is what it reminded us of. The stench of the area permeated our clothes and gloves but the sun was out, the volunteers were happy to be there in a community spirit and I could only wonder if this was one of the moments that God had intended for us to experience in life, to better appreciate the blessings and the woes. It will stick in my mind, along with the images of the many boats in the median of the Interstate on our way onto the Island, and the pure emptiness of the Strand, when we were driving home. The sight of the fishing pier along the Seawall that is broken up, juxtaposed against the sparkling waters of the Bay will be my “wallpaper” when I bring up memories and images of Galveston this past weekend. Thank you, God, for adding to the richness of my life.
It was a good day to be a Lutheran. I’m so proud of our ELCA people! We do darn good work and we do it with good humor and grace and humility and usually high levels of cooperation. Garrison Keillor would be proud.