Wednesday, June 11th, the call came to organize. Southern Indiana, along with other mid-western states, was experiencing severe flood damage. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, known for its quick relief efforts after natural disasters, sent out a call to local priesthood leaders to organize groups that would go down to assist the affected communities. We sent the email to everyone in the quorum and even asked friends of ours if they wanted to join us in provided service. The responses came back and we had a group of 5 ready to go down under the direction of President Hale and a group of 7 to go down Saturday under my direction. Friday was supposed to be the first large effort to organize help from outside groups, under the title of Mormon Helping Hands. Three large trucks were loaded with shovels and cleaning kits had arrived from Salt Lake City. Local groups had been at work since Wednesday. Due to severe thunderstorms, Friday’s expedition was cancelled. However, Saturday provided opportune weather to help in the relief efforts. Our group was assigned to assist the people in Terre Haute, 2 hours away. At the chapel in Terre Haute we were organized into work groups, instructed about safety, briefed with an overview of the situation, and sent off with a spiritual thought from the local Stake President, who you could tell was already exhausted from providing much needed relief in the previous days. Our group was assigned a group of streets located not too far from Deer Creek and had received about a foot of flooding within their homes. Ruined furniture was piled in the streets. Various belonging were spread by the house. Our group leader went door to door and ask if anyone needed assistance. There were quite a bit of rental properties where contractors were working. We started by helping a retired couple move all their furniture into a nearby storage unit, which were becoming increasingly hard to come by. They already had a nice group already assembled from friends and family, but were happy to have the additional help. After moving the furniture we helped rip out the carpet that was fully saturated. Lunchtime came upon us and we were brought sack lunches from those who volunteered at the chapel for this purpose. After lunch we were taken to a street that was more severely affected. The street smelt like sewage, it was nauseating. Again our leader went door to door and we were welcomed by two families right across the street from each other. The house we went to first was in process of tearing out the bottom half of the drywall throughout the house. Carpets had already been removed. It was a tedious job of scoring the drywall, knocking it out, taking out the larger pieces to the road and bagging the smaller pieces, removing nails, and sweeping. After doing this for the whole house we joined the other group across the street. The framing in the house was made with 2×2s and had wood paneling stapled to it in various locating. It was tough work ripping off all the panelling since it would only come off in splintered pieces. At the end of the afternoon we probably had 12 people working hard to help gut the house so it could be cleaned and rebuilt. I talked to the owner a little and he conveyed to me that it was just devastating with what happened. A framed picture of his son was outside drying, but ruined from the dirty water. At 6pm the word came to end. It was suggested that we end with prayer. The person who offered the prayer was Jared, our group leader who first talked to the owner who was a father in his upper thirties. It was a heartfelt plea for Father in Heaven to reach out and take this family and others in His arms and care for them. The love in the room was very tangible and it was a spiritual experience for all. I could not help the tears from welling up in my eyes. The owner was deeply touched as well. We left with our hearts full and with a deep desire to return with more help.
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