Well, I am no longer in Raleigh. We got back into Wallace late on
Wednesday. Driving in, the damage didn't seem to be too bad. Some downed
trees here and there, but nothing too dramatic. And then on Saturday we
got to go and start the cleanup efforts in Wallace. Long story short,
there's a lot of damage, but most of it isn't easily visible from a
drive-by. At one point, we were knocking doors asking people if they
needed help with cleanup in a trailer park that seemed undamaged. The
water line on the inside went up to about 3 feet up the walls, and
everything was soaked/half destroyed. Then, if drive down other streets
where they've started cleaning, there are just piles of trash on both
sides of the street going all the way down. Well, to start from the
beginning of the stuff we started helping with, it goes back to
Thursday. The day after we got back, President Roper(our branch
president) called us and told us about a special branch council meeting
that they wanted us to go to. We showed up and it was all about
arranging things for the ~270 people who would be coming in to help out
in this weekend, and just determining the supplies we would need, how we
would get everyone in and out of our tiny parking lot, and how we would
help out all of the people who might be staying overnight to camp at
the church. On Friday there was another meeting, this one to help stage
things and get them ready for distribution on Saturday. We had to go to
Wilmington and Jacksonville to pick them up, and then unpack them again
in Wallace. By the time we were done, there was a pretty good setup and
we were almost ready to roll. Saturday morning we made some last minute
preparations and then people started coming in. People from Raleigh 3rd
ward were there, so that was cool. They were the ward that I've spent
the most time in on my mission, and it was fun to see them again. We
assigned everyone work orders and sent them all off. There are two main
types of work orders that we deal with here, muck outs and tree removal,
but muck outs are definitely the most common. (Muck outs are going in
and ripping out carpet, drywall, damaged furniture, appliances, and the
like.) We weren't assigned to any crew, so we were at the command center
until a crew came in that afternoon and asked for some Spanish
translators because they were going to a job who didn't speak English.
So we got to go out and help out with a mixed muck out and tree removal
job. What made that one interesting was a Baptist church that showed up a
little bit in with a Bobcat and some more chainsaws. The Bobcat made
getting rid of the tree limbs a lot easier, but we had to build it a
little bridge thing so it could cross a ditch and get to the other
downed trees. It worked out surprisingly well. The homeowners had
already done a lot of work, so we got it done pretty quick. That was the
end of that day. Sunday turned out to be just as interesting. We had a
brief sacrament meeting outside and then we attached ourselves to a crew
and took off. We started off working in a really wealthy house, and it
was huge. The same crew had spent about five hours working in it the day
before, and there was still a lot to do. We finally left after about
another five hours, with 5 people to finish off the little bit that was
left. It was pretty crazy, especially because they were throwing out
things that were completely undamaged, including a personal library,
massive shelving units, and tons of clothes. The flood waters hadn't
even reached these things, but they still threw them out. The craziest
part to us was literally the only thing on the first floor that they did
want to save: the front door. This made sense to us when we found out
that it cost $14,000. This, as well as the fact that it was in a super
wealthy neighborhood and could likely pay for contractors to clean it
out, really irritated people in our group. Basically, they wanted to
help people who really needed the help and not spend so much time on
people they said could pay for it themselves. Well, what could we do?
That afternoon, we went out in a mini group off five people to begin a
muck out. It was on some back roads, and took us a while to figure out
how to get there because one of the roads was washed out completely and
had tons of dead fish covering part of it. That smelled really bad.
Eventually, we got to it. It was on stilts to keep it from flooding, but
the water level in the river had risen 17 feet and flooded them out
anyways. Their whole neighborhood was on stilts, but everyone had been
flooded. The waterline in this house went up to about 3 1/2 feet on an
already raised house, which made us wonder how bad it would have been if
it wasn't on stilts. The water had receded out of the house only 3 days
before, and the roads had only cleared off the day before. All of the
carpeting was still completely soaked and weighed an incredible amount.
We were taking our wheelbarrow in and out, or we wouldn't have been able
to do it. We also pulled out their fridge, stove, and dishwasher, as
well as a lot of miscellaneous furniature and drywall. We got a good
start on their house, and a crew will be returning next week to finish
it all off.
Unfortunately, in terms of the people we are
teaching, I still don't have any news. We haven't been able to get in
contact with them at all so far, and we've basically been turned into
service missionaries for a while. Our branch president said that the
weekends might be like this for up to a month or two, so we'll see how
things go. That's all for now, but enjoy the pictures. I took a lot, so
they'll be coming through a Google Drive link.
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