Early Sunday morning, September 27, 2009, long before Americans on the West Coast rolled out of bed, hundreds of yellow-shirted volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (“Mormon Helping Hands”) were already busy as bees in North Georgia. Their mission: Save homes in Cobb County, Georgia from after-effects of the floods that ravaged the area on Monday, September 21.
Atlanta-area Church leaders called “stake presidents,” including East Marietta Stake President Gary Futral, issued the call on Saturday afternoon for 300 fully-equipped volunteers. By Sunday, at 9 a.m., more than 1,000 were fanning out from the Austell, Georgia Goodwill location to fill work orders (at this stage, the orders were to remove drywall, insulation, flooring and an occasional fridge or kitchen sink) across the disaster zone. Needless to say, this is an organization with an awe-inspiring capacity to put effective boots on the ground when people are in need or work needs doing.
The Church has repeatedly been first or nearly first on the scene following major disasters domestic and international over the past couple of decades. With so much experience in disaster response — many of these volunteers are veterans of Hurricanes Katrina and Andrew triage — this crew was fast and effective. In a 90-minute blitz, roughly 9 – 10:30 a.m., one team from the Marietta Georgia East Stake of the Church completely gutted the home pictured below.
Seeing how quickly this home was set in order, neighbors asked if they could get some of that “Helping Hand” mojo, too. With so much willing talent in place, why say “no”? Homes were quickly added to the rescue list.
One such home is owned by recent Kenyan immigrants (now U.S. citizens), whose son and daughter have both served with the U.S. Marines in Iraq.
The husband recounted how he drove away from his home, Monday at 11 a.m., seeing “no water on the ground.” At about 1:00 p.m., he returned to rescue the cat. Stepping directly from a boat through an open second-story bedroom window, he found a foot of water on the (second) floor. The frantic cat, who had found a safe haven on a piece of furniture, gladly jumped into the boat.
Sunday afternoon, as volunteers finished work at his home, he was almost speechless with gratitude. After beginning the day confronting the overwhelming task of gutting the second floor of his home alone, his burden was miraculously lightened. He said, “This is an experience I will never forget. I never expected to see you here.”
To see more pictures of today’s Helping Hands’ activity, you can click the Georgia Flood Recovery tab at the top of the page or just click this link.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m thankful for people who give of themselves like this.
Thanks good report. It is good to see them documented.
What a huge blessing to both the people who were served, and to those who served them. This is what the LDS Church does all over the world, from the tsunami-stricken Southeast Asia a few years back, to fire-stricken California–any year you name, but it is great to see it up close.
Hey, those are some really cute kids working in that mud. I think I know a few!