SBTC crews, churches were crucial help as Rita knocked out power, water

KIRBYVILLE, Texas?Fifty miles north of Beaumont, Texas, members of First Baptist Church of Kirbyville were busy passing out water and ice to fellow townspeople who were all in the same predicament: No electricity and no water.

“We’re living ‘old school,'” said Robert Fuller, a member of FBC, two days after Hurricane Rita swept across the Texas Gulf Coast and a huge swath of deep East Texas, snapping towering Southern pines like toothpicks and altering life in dozens of communities for what looked like weeks to come.

More than a week later, much of the area was still without electricity?save for a few generators. Some residents had power restored, but others?customers of a rural electric cooperative that had its infrastructure and equipment destroyed?still lacked electricity.

Thankfully, said Fuller’s wife, Esther, running water?albeit cold?was restored late in the week after Rita struck.

“We got water two days ago. I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven,” Esther Fuller said. “I’d been living without water. To have water is just a blessing. Little things like that?you just don’t realize how important they are and how unimportant other things are.”

More important, no one from Kirbyville died in the storm, she added.

“That is just such a huge thing for me. Yeah, we’ve had some people’s homes severely damaged. Actually, we had more stories where trees are down all around it but the house is fine.”

On the coast, portions of Port Arthur were getting electricity restored by Oct. 4, said Bill Davenport, SBTC state director of Disaster Relief.

Meanwhile, FBC Kirbyville, like many churches in inland rural areas, continued to be central relief points for distributing food, water and ice to residents.

Late in the afternoon Sept. 30, a line of cars and trucks waited in an alley drive next to FBC Kirbyville as firefighters from California and community members unloaded supplies from FEMA, such as plastic tarps to cover damaged roofs, and distributed boxed dinners and bags of ice to citizens.

A line of approximately two dozen cars were lined up to buy gasoline at a Wal-Mart near Silsbee, Texas, about 40 miles north of Port Arthur.

Davenport said the relief effort for Rita could last for 90 days in some areas because of chainsaw work and mud-out recovery. The SBTC has mud-out recovery units that can restore water- and mud-damaged structures.

Through Oct. 4, SBTC Disaster Relief units had prepared an estimated 30,400 meals for Texans affected by Rita. But as electricity is restored, SBTC feeding units will go home, he said.

In the week after the storm, SBTC feeding units were operating in Port Arthur, Vidor and Splendora, Davenport said, and SBTC chainsaw units were working in Jasper County and in Port Arthur.

FROM THE GULF TO TYLER

Towns such as Jasper, Kirbyville, Silsbee and Woodville, in deep Southeast Texas, and Orange and Mauriceville closer to the Gulf, were hard hit by Hurricane Rita’s winds.

Damage was reported as far away as Tyler, Texas, nearly 220 miles north of the Gulf Coast and on the western edge of the storm.

Winds from Rita tore a large portion of a stucco façade from the four-year-old worship center at Friendly Baptist Church in Tyler, which had to cancel services the next day because church officials were concerned about the building’s safety, said Pastor Dale Perry.

“It tore the west gables off completely and exposed all of the roof and air conditioning duct work and steelwork,” Perry said. “We were really fortunate that we did not have water damage. When Rita passed by, it was strongest from north to south. On the west side of the building it just peeled off like a banana.”

Friendly Baptist previously had voted to postpone a planned building note campaign to financially assist Katrina victims.

</SPA