Operation Blessing Sends Volunteers to Help With Flood Cleanup Efforts
Operation Blessing will begin coordinating volunteer flood cleanup efforts in Texas Saturday.
The organization deployed its U.S. Disaster Relief team to Brookshire, Texas, earlier this week, including a convoy of disaster relief equipment.
Team leaders met with local officials and will begin coordinating daily volunteer efforts to clean out homes, remove sheetrock, and salvage belongings.
Meanwhile in Houston, widespread flooding has claimed the lives of eight people and displaced thousands.
Floodwaters have destroyed more than 1,700 homes resulting in about $14 million worth of damages.
Authorities say that amount will increase significantly as floodwaters recede and inspectors get a closer look at neighborhoods.
"That number is just going to grow on a daily basis," said Francisco Sanchez, spokesman for the Harric County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
As the number is expected to increase it will surpass the county's threshold for requesting federal disaster relief.
The region was walloped by another storm on Memorial Day weekend last year. Sanchez says many of them had just finished those repairs only to be hit again.
"We've still not resolved funding and relief efforts from Memorial Day," he said.
Authorities are working to mitigate the impact of future floods, he said, but the solving Houston's problem may prove to be difficult as nearby rivers, watersheds, creeks and bayous make Houston a repository for runoff that's traveled hundreds of miles.
In the meantime residents are left to pick up the pieces.
"It's ruined; all this is ruined. We can't even wash clothes," Brant Grimes, a nearby resident whose home flooded, told KHOU-TV. "There's my wedding tape right there, I don't have another copy of it."
