Send prayers: Texas Republican turns down donated blankets, beds, manpower from Canada

[Honeycombe8]

28. I'm in a Harvey flood zone. What the local churches do....

The local churches are, for the most part, small. Shelters have to be handled a certain way and is a complicated venture. We have two large shelters to handle hundreds of people. One is a colliseum, and the other is the local civic (convention) center. Both are huge.

But the local churches are very strong is providing assistance of all sorts. I live out a ways. There's a big Pentecostal church (that's right... PENTECOSTAL) that is a base for dropping off donations of all sorts. Their people take the donations from the cars and make regular runs to the big shelters. They also do volunteer work.

Some of the smaller churches are hands on helping local regular homeless shelters, which are now overflowing. Cooking, deliveries to the small shelters.

Generally the way it SEEMS to work is that the biggest church of that denomination will handle things. There are several pentescostal churches, but it's the big one that is the drop-off point and coordinates efforts to help. I think that probably the satellite pentescostal people provide help there, at the big one.

A big Catholic Church is providing similar assistance. Haven't heard of the Methodist churches doing anything, but they may be.

It's a good system. Each church collects things from the area, so it's easy for people to drop off donations.

All sorts of people are helping. It's amazing. In my area, some of the guys spent the entire bad weather time filling sandbags, putting them in their trucks, and taking them around to people who request them and can't go get them on the flooded streets. Women and children also helped fill sandbags.

Some of the guys used their boats to check on the elderly in flooded areas. My area has a Facebook group, where pics of lost and found pets were posted, lists of what is needed for donations, pics of flooded areas, updates of the flooding in different areas, etc.

It's all hands on deck in a situation like this. That includes the churches. But not all of them, I'm sure.

As a female, I couldn't lift the sandbags. I also have a small car that's low to the ground. One of the guys brought me a few sandbags and put them in the back for me, although I told him I'd go get them and that I'd drag them to the back. He insisted he'd bring them. Those sandbags weigh at least 50 pounds! When they get wet, they can weigh upwards of 80 lbs!

My heart aches for the people who flooded out, or got even just a foot of water in their houses. As I sat here wondering if the water would get to my house, I felt the fear that others no doubt felt. I began to panic. But I bought this house because it had never flooded and was not in a flood prone area. I did not flood, thank goodness. Many can't say that. Their worst fears came true.