Jehovah's Witnesses jump in to fix homes
EACH WEEKEND, VOLUNTEERS HELP FLOOD VICTIMS RECOVER
BY RICHARD VARA
Houston Chronicle
HOUSTON -- The Redding family of Patterson, La. -- Tom, Donna and their 18-year-old son, Tommy -- will be on the road to Houston every third weekend for the rest of the year.
They will drive about 500 miles round-trip each of those weekends, after a full week of work, to help fellow Jehovah's Witnesses whose homes were devastated by Tropical Storm Allison.
``This is something we felt we needed to do,'' Donna Redding said. ``We knew they were in dire straits, so we come to help them out.''
On a recent sun-splashed Saturday that begged for being outdoors, Tom and Tommy cut and hung new drywall while Donna smoothed ragged edges.
The Reddings are among hundreds of Jehovah's Witnesses from Texas and Louisiana volunteering their weekends to repair 700 homes of Houston-area flood victims. While most of the victims are fellow Witnesses, the repair effort has spread to include some families and neighbors of church members hit by Houston's most costly natural disaster. An estimated 50,000 houses were inundated when floodwaters hit in early June.
The volunteer effort is exactly what Raphael Williams expected from his fellow Witnesses after 2 1/2 feet of water filled his two-story northeast Houston home June 9.
``Jehovah himself is behind this organization and helping us with this work,'' he said. Volunteers already have replaced a toilet, doors, wiring, walls and carpeting in his home.
``I feel fortunate that my brothers are helping out, and they are doing it in such a way that there will be no problems later on,'' Williams said.
The floodwaters had not receded when Witnesses sprang into action, area spokesman Genaro Peter said. The governing body of Witnesses based in Brooklyn, N.Y., ordered an immediate assessment of the damage.
``We have never seen anything like this here,'' said Richard Rokovich, one of an eight-member committee directing 10,000 local volunteers.
``Our scriptural obligation is immediately to our members,'' Peter said. ``We called all the presiding overseers of the congregations, and they called all their members to see who was damaged.
``By Monday morning we had put together a report on all the Witnesses affected by the flood, addresses, phone numbers, extent of damages to the home, whether they had lost cars, where they were if they were not at home.''
The national governing body then ordered a relief effort. The local committee launched a multifront program including developing a database, locating warehouse and administrative facilities, purchasing materials and organizing volunteers.
Within days, teams were trained by professionals on how to tear out carpeting and walls, and how to clean and disinfect homes, Peter said. They did not want any untrained volunteers to aggravate damage, he said.
Coordinating the relief program is no small task, Peter said. The Houston relief committee oversees 22 departments that track volunteers, construction materials, housing for out-of-towners and different stages of home construction.
Williams, 51, said volunteers from Cleveland arrived within a week to help him tear out the flood damage. His home and others were then inspected for damage and measured for the amount of replacement materials, down to the number of nails and gallons of paint needed, Peter said.
In a warehouse in northwest Houston, materials are organized house by house. Carpet is even pre-cut at the warehouse so volunteers need only lay it. Such minute care assures that materials and funds are not wasted, Peter said.
Flood victims choose from a limited number of carpet colors and cabinets, Peter said. If they buy their own materials, volunteers install them.
The allocated materials are delivered to the homes by volunteer truckers. The appropriate workers, whether general laborers or craftsmen, are assigned to a home. Once their tasks are completed, the workers are assigned to other homes.
All the work is tracked by computer. Ideally, the homes are placed on a three-weekend repair cycle, although some homes need less work and others require more, Peter said.
Volunteer labor saves enormous costs, he said. In addition, the committee received substantial donations of materials and purchased items in bulk for more savings. Its warehouse space is donated.
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It seems they really need to do something to look nice these days!
Yakki Da
Kent
I need more BOE letters, KMs and other material. Those who can send it to me - please do! The new section will be interesting!!
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