It’s been a long week! Appreciate the prayers, it was an intense week for sure! We arrived at Savannah Saturday, the 10th, late in the evening. Sunday was just us getting settled in and we talked to a couple guys to get some help on Monday.
Monday, we got our trailer unloaded so we could work out of it and worked on tearing out the outside walls at Nick’s house, cleaned it, sealed the room off with plastic, and then set up the dehu and fans to start drying.
We were able to get it dried in 36 hours so got it sprayed on Wednesday. We’ll get it built back soon but will have to redo some how it was built to keep the water from getting in should this happen again.
Savannah started feeling the effects of Debby on Monday the 5th and slowly moved through the area through Wednesday as she continued up the East Coast and onward where there was a lot of flooding as she dissipated inland further north.
As is normal for Savannah anytime it rains a lot, roads and yards flood, but most homes were fine. The Bradley Point neighborhood had a lot of flooded homes as they sit closer to the Ogeechee River, but as I’ll discuss next, it was mostly not during or immediately after the storm. By the weekend, things were drying up and the sun was out. We were planning on stopping to help the grandkids and then head to FL to help folks there.
The Ogeechee River runs between Savannah and Richmond Hill flowing inland to the ocean. Water kept flowing for days and it continued to rise until it crested sometime Sunday. Some parts of Bradley Point and several areas in Richmond Hill on the other side of the Ogeechee had started flooding, but a lot of areas were still high and dry. By Monday evening 3 different neighborhoods and a lot of businesses and some churches had water around them that began getting into the structures.
At least three neighborhoods were so flooded that boats were used to transport people and supplies to those who didn’t have water inside their homes and evacuate others. The water kept coming up until Thursday when it finally started receding. Friday folks could begin getting to some of their homes and almost all of them were accessible by Saturday.
To make matters worse, a few years ago flood maps were changed, and FEMA removed all these neighborhoods from the flood area and told them they no longer needed flood insurance, so most of them dropped it. We’ve been told that it’s never flooded here in over 100 years! Meanwhile the local and state governments have declared this a state of emergency, but no one has any funds or direction for any of these folks! No one is even telling them what to do with all the debris that needs to be thrown out of their homes! So far, we haven’t met one homeowner that has flood insurance.
Tuesday the town decided to help and asked a few churches to put together a resource center(RC) at the community center in town. The people in the town have been diligently helping their neighbors and many of them transitioned to the RC. It opened on Wednesday, so I went in to talk to them about helping, telling them about all the experience we have dealing with flood/mold remediation, and they welcomed us in. It was determined that Mary Jo would come to help at the center as she’s done so well in the past, and I’d talk to the homeowners and help direct volunteers who wanted to serve at the homes.
As I was talking about things, someone came up and said that a handicap ramp had collapsed. The building is extremely old and has mostly sat empty and in disrepair. I offered to get it fixed.
I showed up the next day with Mary Jo to serve inside and with two teenagers from CC Savannah, Bebo and Nemi, and a lot of wood to replace rotted structure underneath to then secure the railings and decking on top. It was a hot long day, but we got it done. We were just ready to close the trailer doors and hit the road when Mary Jo came out and said someone had broken through some decking on the other side of the building. It has a lot of porch area. I looked and said I’d be back in the morning and went and picked up more wood.
Thursday, I needed to stop at a couple of homes to meet with homeowners I talked to on the phone. At this point, since we don’t have any help, I’m letting the homeowners know my experience and training to help them trust my advice over others. I walk through the home and explain room by room what needs to happen. I tell them that I can help direct any volunteers, friends, family, other locals, etc., and I will loan them any tools that they need to help with the process. If we get anyone from out of town or spontaneous volunteers to the RC, then as needed I can direct and oversee them. I let them know that I’m available to meet them at their home anytime during this process and/or answer questions via a phone call or email. I tell them that once their home is properly cleaned that I can provide commercial dehumidifiers and air movers to properly dry their homes. I have enough equipment to dry 2 homes at once. The dehumidifiers cost $2000+ per unit and we’d love to have a couple more! Once the home is dried, I will then come in and spray antimicrobial throughout the home to kill all the bacteria that causes mold to grow. At that point they can move back in and rebuild as they get funds and help.
The first neighborhood had a lot of water, but I was able to safely get to the home. I explained what was needed and he said he would have some friends from his church showing up later that day and all day on Saturday. I made it back to his home on Saturday late in the afternoon, and they got a lot done. I’ll be setting up equipment in his house today.
The next homeowner told me that he could get down the roads with his car, so I’d be fine with my truck and trailer. Turns out it was just the beginning of the road, and he forgot to call me and let me know. I almost got stuck a few times but ended up with water inside my trailer. Once I got to the RC, Mary Jo came out and we got everything out of the trailer that was on the floor, then she spent the afternoon wiping it down and drying it and then we quickly sprayed it and put it all back together. David, a local guy asked if we needed help when we were unloading all the wood for my deck project, we said YES! He was at the RC to volunteer so ended up helping me with some of the decking work all day as well. We got the deck secured underneath and then replaced and secured the bad decking. I still need to work on the railings and check the rest of the deck/porch to ensure it’s safe. We finished loading everything back about 8 that night and headed back to Nicks to eat, shower, and sleep!
Saturday, I headed back to help Tim, someone I had met the day before, that needed help moving his washer and dryer to the curb. This was the same neighborhood that I got stuck in the day before and it was now passable! There were a lot of people around, so I decided to start going around and talking to homeowners who lived in their homes as there were a lot of rental homes in the area. I talked to people at about 25 homes in that neighborhood.
I ran into a national group that is in town for a week or 2 only utilizing local volunteers who are telling homeowners that they need to immediately spray their soaking wet homes after the drywall is removed because they’re leaving and won’t be able to spray it later. So that was an uphill battle at several homes that want to move forward but are no where’s near spray time. I’ll be setting up equipment on one home to dry today whose church helped them do what I recommended.
Unfortunately, by the time I left the streets were lined with vehicles and I could barely squeeze my rig down the road to get out. One of my awning arms got stuck in the cow catcher of a truck and ripped it off my trailer and put some scratches on his truck. He had just got it back from getting the front end repaired and a new cow catcher from an accident the previous week. It was just a few scratches, but he wants it all fixed. He’s supposed to take it back to the body shop and will let me know what it will cost to fix and whether I want to involve the insurance company. Pray for favor here.
After securing my awning arm to my trailer with bungees, I traveled to the next neighborhood to check on the first home I looked at the day before and ended up talking to 3 other homeowners and was able to loan a couple of them some tools and give them advice and will hopefully be able to help them through the process. It was another long day!
I unfortunately had to tell about 30 different homeowners that they had to get rid of just about everything in their house, which so many of them didn’t realize as I patiently walked around and showed them the damages already done in just a couple of days and it will only get worse. Many were in tears, some very angry, and most just not knowing what to do. I was able to pray with many of them and our hope is that as we continue to help these folks that they will see Jesus in what we do and that conversations will begin to open as we plant seeds for their salvation!
I didn’t sleep well Saturday night just thinking and praying about everything I saw these folks dealing with. Sunday, we went to church and out to lunch with some friends, we took a long nap, had dinner and got ice cream with the grandkids, typed this, and went to bed! Nick and another guy from his church will be going with me tomorrow.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as it’s not easy to do what we do and satan would love nothing more than to discourage us from pressing on!
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Here to serve and disciple until He calls us home,
Love Yas!
Curt & Mary Jo
