When flood waters started coming in their garage, Debbie and Larry Gonzalez grabbed a sump pump off the shelf and tried to keep the murky mess out of the interior of their Carolina Shores house.
The couple is among the thousands facing difficult days following historic flooding that damaged businesses, houses and automobiles in southeastern North Carolina and South Carolina.
North Carolina Baptist Men (also known as Baptists on Mission) are in the process of tearing out wet drywall, soggy insulation and kitchen cabinets with severe mildew damage in the Gonzalez’s house.
“I just don’t know what we would do without all these amazing men and women helping us,” Debbie said as she watched through tears the water-damaged material being removed from her house. “These guys and gals are great.
NCBM photo A group of North Carolina Baptists prepare a meal in Johnsonville, S.C., one of the sites where N.C. Baptists Men (or Baptists on Mission) are helping with flood recovery efforts. |
“We had never heard about NCBM until now. A neighbor told me to go the town, and they had a list of resources for help. I called Bill Martin and he came by the same day. He told us what they were going to do and that work would begin this week. And here they are,”
The couple, former residents of Long Island, N.Y., moved to North Carolina three years ago. They do not have flood insurance. “We were told this is not a flood area, and we wouldn’t need the insurance,” she said.
Debbie is unable to help with the tear-out because of five herniated discs in her back. Larry’s right arm is immobilized in a sling following rotator cuff surgery just two weeks before the flooding.
“What we didn’t realize while we were in the garage was that water was pouring in the back of the house. A fireman knocked on the front door and when we opened the door more water rushed in. He told us to quickly evacuate. We ran around the house looking for ways to save some things, and then we left.
“We couldn’t take my car because the water was already too high so we drove Larry’s pickup truck. When we left we couldn’t tell where the road was because it was flooded. We managed to get out of our subdivision and go to a friend’s house,” Debbie said. “We didn’t realize how bad the damage is until we saw all this mold. Larry and I have a friend who is going to let us stay at her house.
Members of First Baptist Church in Rocky Mount were among the volunteers helping the couple.
Other N.C. Baptists are currently working in three South Carolina towns: Longs, Socastee and Johnsonville.
A Brunswick County, N.C., site closed Oct. 12 but Baptists on Mision has pledged to help whereever needed.
The Johnsonville site is a feeding unit. Other units on site are safety, chaplaincy and medical reserve corps.
Visit baptistsonmission.org to donate or to volunteer.
Other Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (SBDR) volunteers are from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma. College students are joining in during fall break.
Volunteers can sign up through NCBM or through the North American Mission Board which coordinates and manages Southern Baptist responses to major disasters through partnerships with 42 state Baptist conventions, most of which have their own state disaster relief ministries.
Southern Baptists have 65,000 trained volunteers – including chaplains – and 1,550 mobile units for feeding, chainsaw, mud-out, command, communication, child care, shower, laundry, water purification, repair/rebuild and power generation. SBDR is one of the three largest mobilizers of trained disaster relief volunteers in the United States, along with the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army.
Updates on the latest SBDR response are available at namb.net/dr/atlantic-coast-floods.
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