Friday was a good day to work

We added 18 Harding students to the volunteer base Thursday night. They started on three tree jobs for a church member, Jeanie, and two of her neighbors, Connie and Ms. Francis who live in Santa Fe. They brought out an enormous pile of branches from Ms. Frances' yard where several trees went down.
They also removed a tree that has been leaning on Jeanie's roof since the storm.


They cut up a large tree with a 2' trunk and another large tree in Connie's back yard.

And Jeannie fed them all really well!


The Lubbock crew worked more in Galveston while the Northside Christian crew continued working in Shore Acres.

I surveyed San Leon, checking out a request for help with a house that had lost a wall to the waves to make sure it was safe for volunteers. While there I found 91 year old Walter trying to get his storm door off the back addition to his two story house.

The wall had slid off the foundation in the waves and was leaning at an angle that made the door hit the eves when it opened. I removed the door and the extremely water logged exterior door he had already pulled off and left leaning in the doorway. The opposing wall was leaning the other way and the structure seemed stable, though it was obviously not sound. More on the crew clearing his house on the Saturday posting.

I dropped contact information with a couple of churches near the area, the post office, where the postmaster said her 81 year old father needed help, and another relief operation working at the Maranantha Baptist Church there in San Leon.
They fed me a great lunch. Committed relief was heading back to California Saturday and a new group is moving into the flooded, soggy, recovering church.
The entire area is heavily damaged. Much like the 9th ward after Katrina.




The first row of homes that received the bulk of the wave action are heavily damaged, or moved off their foundations. Large boats are in yards. Newer vacation homes are mostly up on stilts and were not badly damaged, but many full time residents' homes are small, built on the ground, and not well maintained. There were quite a few "yard sales" going on where everything was set out on the lawn to dry out...


Some people are living in tents.