BRIDGE CITY, Texas - Today was a great day overall. We worked on cleaning up Deputy Sheriff Mike’s house today. When Ike came ashore, Deputy Mike and his fellow officers were staying in a secure bunker to weather the storm. But as the 911 calls poured in from terrified residents, they left the safety of the bunker in boats and off-road dump trucks to rescue people who otherwise may have lost their lives.

During the next 24 hours, Deputy Mike and his team of first responders saved more than 1,000 stranded people. Since then, he’s been working 12-hour days and had no time off. In serving the public first, Mike has had no time to address his own flooded home and property. With nowhere to stay, he sleeps at the county jail and his wife, a nurse, sleeps at the hospital. Their children have been sent to stay at various relatives’ houses across the state.

The storm surge washed over a nearby marsh and swept up marsh reeds, hundreds of poisonous snakes and thick, rotten, sludge-like mud.

Mike’s property was covered with reeds while the home of a fellow work colleague was filled inches-deep with the marsh mud and floodwaters.

When I visited the work crews at his house today, his entire countenance had changed. He reached out and gave me a big hug. I said, “Mike I am sorry. I know this is bad (referring to his home). Mike answered me back, “No Jody, it was bad, but it is great now. This is progress and I have a plan!”

Mike was smiling ear to ear. Four of his sheriff’s buddies were there and were so happy for Mike. His boss, the Lieutenant, shook my hand and with a deep look of sincerity said, “Thank you. This is the first time we have seen Mike truly smile since the storm. You guys have no idea what you are doing and what you have done for this community!”

Our goal is to continue making first reponsders a priority in our cleanup efforts since they are dedicating so much of their time to serving and aiding the public and others in need.

We had over 25 volunteers working on sites today, both local and from out of town. Sandy returned over 60 calls today and still did not finish all the call backs for people interested in volunteering. This is great momentum for us as we have hundreds of work orders still to be completed.

We met a family today who needed help gutting their home. The husband is in his 60s and just had surgery to remove cancer. The couple’s son, Adam, is 30 with Down’s Syndrome. The family has begun gutting their home but cannot finish it, so we are sending a team to help them tomorrow.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Disaster, Hurricane Relief, Jody Herrington, North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.