7 McAllen UMs help with Texas storm cleanup

By Claudia M. Williams
Staff Writer
Seven people from the McAllen District helped the Texas Conference with hurricane recovery in Orange Dec. 2-4.
“We knew we weren’t going to rebuild anything,” said J’Nevelyn Lloyd of First UMC, McAllen. “We knew we’d be on a cleanup mission. We were told that we didn’t need to bring any tools—just gloves, goggles, bug spray and a willing spirit.”
But team members didn’t know was what was in store for them.
“It seems like there is a lot of devastation still,” said Ken Cady of St. Mark UMC, McAllen. “After three months, you’d think a lot more would have been done.
“I didn’t see many homes that were not affected (by Hurricane Rita). About half the houses were covered with tar paper.”
Upon arriving in Orange, team members received details about where they would be working and what they would be doing. A volunteer from Stonebridge UMC, McKinney, in the North Texas Conference made the assignments.
“We were there primarily to help clean yards of people who turned in request forms to UMCOR” (United Methodist Committee on Relief), Cady said.
Every one of the project descriptions said “large tree(s) needed to be cut or removed,” he said.
Lloyd said the McKinney volunteer’s “eyes got really big when we told her we had no tools, no chainsaws, just us.”
The McKinney woman was part of a mission team herself. That team of nine had come equipped with chainsaws.
“We decided to team up with them,” Lloyd said. “The 16 of us together cut and hauled trees and brush from seven houses in two days. These were not trees like we have in south Texas!”
The Federal Emergency Management Agency and Orange city crews had said they couldn’t haul away anything more than 10 feet from the curb.
“We moved lots and lots of trees for them to haul away,” Lloyd said.
Cady said, “These people were poor. They couldn’t afford to remove the trees themselves. If not for UMCOR, it wouldn’t be done. They’d been waiting for the city or the federal government to help.
“They look at the devastation in the yard and see nothing has happened, nothing has happened, nothing has happened.”
At one home, though, hope replaced that despair when the United Methodists arrived, Cady said.
“A woman came out the door screaming hallelujah and screaming something about us doing God’s work,” he said.
Lots of people around Orange are still in need, Cady said.
“We were just on the outside of the area,” he said. “To think it goes on to the panhandle of Florida—there’s just a lot of destruction.
“When it hits the news and gets a lot of coverage, people really want to help. Then it’s off the news, and people don’t think about it. There are a whole lot of people in need.”
The McAllen District team in Orange was made up of Lloyd, Cady, Rob and Jennie Christianson, St. Mark UMC, McAllen; Rod and Pam Schwartz, First UMC, Weslaco; and Susan Hellums, First UMC, McAllen.