'It's very humbling to see a community finally come together'

As flooding from Hurricane Harvey forced many families to evacuate their homes and be transported to community shelters, helping hands were ready to bring a semblance of normalcy to their lives.

“As soon as I walked in my first question was, ‘What do we need?’ As one of the other volunteers was telling me, I was posting it on Facebook and asking people to share. Because at this time, we had no blankets. We had absolutely no food to give these people. We had no socks. We had no dry towels. We had no clothes. We had nothing but a roof, tables and chairs, and some working bathrooms. But as soon as people in our community heard about the need, that’s when the walls of destruction came down and the overflow of blessings came in.

“And some of the volunteers who showed up were going through their own devastation. Yet they dropped everything to come in and help people that they didn’t even know. Those are the heroes. Those are the servants. Those are the ones who are unselfish. I saw many, many people who were very, very unselfish. It’s very humbling to see a community finally come together like we’re supposed to. It was a beautiful thing to behold.”

— Teresa McCartney

Teresa is one of countless people in the community who have stepped up to help — from rescuing families to providing temporary housing to volunteering at shelters to donating needed items. Among those she praised were two local police officers, Desiree Stanislas and Eric Filyaw, who went “above and beyond” by spending their own money to purchase food and other items for evacuees. The pair also helped prepare and serve dinner plates.

Hurricane Harvey is having a major impact on the lives of people in Baytown and surrounding communities. If you would like to share your thoughts or experiences related to this historic weather event, send us a message on our Facebook or Instagram pages or email baytownproject@gmail.com.