Four Points residents and members of the Austin Christian Fellowship Disaster Recovery Team take a break after working to help Wimberley residents dig out from under the damage of recent floods. Left to right are Keith Shaw, Angel Figeroa, Mark Crenwelge, Pam Crenwelge, Keith Morton and Matt Morton.
By KIM ESTES, Four Points News
Four Points residents, businesses and churches are making a difference in the flood-ravaged town of Wimberley.
“To see it in real life, you feel so small. Huge trees that are hundreds of years old, are down: like someone came through with a roller and rolled everything down,” said Nicole Korensky, a local resident who has teamed up with others to help support the aftermath of the Memorial Day weekend floods in Wimberley.
And it’s not just what’s on the side of the road, Korensky said. “You look up in the trees and there’s a chair and boards stuck in a tree. It just shows you how high the water rose. It takes your breath away.”
“It’s a terribly devastating and tragic situation, but if a silver lining is possible, the support and sense of community responding to help would be it,” said Kristina Ritchie, who coordinated with local businesses to provide food and coffee to displaced residents, search and rescue workers, and volunteers shoveling debris in the devastated community about 50 miles south of here.
The Wimberley floodwaters took this house off of its foundation. Local Four Points residents were compelled to help and several moms teamed up to collect homemade cookies, snacks, cleaning supplies, food and drink to help support the cleanup efforts. Photo by Nicole Korensky
For Ritchie and Korensky, both Steiner Ranch residents, their response began when they saw a Facebook appeal for help for both Wimberley residents and disaster workers. As a result of that, Korensky went to the scene last Friday and took donations with her from many who contributed.
Paige Steen, a River Place resident, helped clean up a house destroyed by the floods when she recently volunteered with Austin Christian Fellowship’s Wimberley recovery initiative.
Local churches are also helping the flood recovery of Wimberley. Austin Christian Fellowship has organized volunteer shifts to help, and about 75 volunteers in all have filled over 100 time slots on the ACF Wimberley recovery sign-up sheet.
“We have some trained volunteers, who may do some targeted work, but for the larger part, it’s a range of people who do muck-outs, debris removal or warehouse sorting,” said Trish Bode, ACF volunteer leader and, also, a Steiner Ranch resident.
ACF’s response began four years ago, when the church organized a Disaster Response Team after the central Texas fires. In fact, the Steiner Ranch fires motivated some ACF volunteers with personal experience with catastrophe to go to Wimberley. “We have individuals who were impacted by the Steiner Ranch fires,” Bode said.
All volunteers from Four Points have proved themselves ready for all tasks, big and small.
Subway donated 50 sandwiches to locally organized, Wimberley relief efforts on Friday. Photo by Nicole Korensky
Ritchie said, “What amazes me most about this community is how everyone pulls together, offers their support in whatever capacity they are able to pitch in — be it on foot helping with the search, donating their money or time or collecting much needed supplies — people all over this community jumped right in to help.”
Steiner Ranch residents brought canned goods, cleaning supplies and homemade foods for Korensky to deliver to Wimberley on May 29. “One lady made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies. Someone else brought homemade sandwiches. I went to Wal-Mart and got napkins, paper plates, things like that,” she said.
Rudy’s Country Store & Bar-B-Q donationed 100 sandwiches to help those helping in Wimberley. Photo by Nicole Korensky
Last Friday, Korensky and her parents, Norm and Judy Hofer, went to Rudy’s Bar-B-Q, Subway and Starbucks to collect 150 sandwiches and enough coffee for 200 cups, as coordinated by Ritchie. They set off in Korensky’s Cadillac Escalade, loaded with supplies. What they saw an hour later left them breathless, Korensky said.
Fortunately, not all memories or the memorabilia that goes with them washed away, as one ACF volunteer learned. “One of our volunteers went to clean up a house. The lady — an elderly lady — was very concerned about preserving her family history, her pictures. So the team member sat with her and helped her pull the pictures out, unstick them from the glass. And she listened to all her stories – all the way back to her great grandparents. It was the one thing on her heart,” said Michelle Brigance, ACF U.S. Mission Leader. Afterward, Brigance reported, both women “felt good”.
“It’s a mutual feeling of gratitude. I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to help in this recovery,” Bode added. “There’s just an outpouring of love.”
The public is invited to volunteer with the Wimberley recovery through ACF. Church membership is not required. Shifts are offered in 4-hour increments, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday through Saturday. To sign up, visit the ACF website at http://www.acfellowship.org/fourpoints/missions/fp-missions/disaster-response/ or call ACF at (512) 381-5700.
Starbucks Coffee Co. donationed two big jugs of coffee, etc. to help Wimberley clean up. Photo by Nicole Korensky