Hurricane Harvey Relief-Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 in the series of blog posts that follows the experience of our team member, Shanna Crawford, on her trip to Texas to volunteer for Hurricane Harvey.

Here is day two of Shanna’s journey…

Shanna and her four travel companions were sheltered by a church down in Port Arthur. When they woke up on Sunday, day 2 of their travels, it was already 80 degrees with 90% humidity by 6:00 am. Port Arthur is the most humid city in the entire country.

They started their morning at church. Not many people were there, but those who were seemed happy to be there, despite the unfortunate circumstance.

After church, Shanna met Joi, a mother of four who was stuck at work when Harvey hit. She was stranded at her office for 26 hours. In Joi’s area there were 64 inches of water in just 48 hours, a new record.

Joi made it home to her family and they were airlifted by helicoptered out of their apartment and taken to an evacuation location where they were put on a C-147 Cargo Plane. The plane took them to the Dallas Fort Worth Convention Center where they stayed for two weeks.

After church and meeting Joi, Shanna and her friends went to Cheddar’s for lunch. After their meal the waitress told them that an elderly woman behind them, thankful for them being there to assist with hurricane relief, had put $50.00 towards their meal. Shanna was touched by this kindness, and realized just how much people appreciated their presence there.

That day, they started their efforts by cleaning out a yard of a house that had been gutted. It was a sad sight, as all of the homeowners possessions were sitting in the yard soaking in maggots and flies and water.

Day three is when the heavy labor would begin. Catch up with our blog next Tuesday to hear the next part of Shanna’s story.