Hurricane Irene and Mormon Helping Hands

Last week our stake leaders sent out an e-mail inviting stake members to participate in a service activity about an hour and a half away toward the coast.  They asked for "75 men or workers for each of the next two Saturdays. Approx 10 men per ward (14 yr old  and up youth from each ward and women are welcome if they so desire)."


I grew up in a small logging town in Oregon.  My dad was a dentist, but on the side we worked on the family tree farm, which was around 120 acres.  One summer, my sister and I spent the entire summer leaving early in the morning to go work on the farm  pruning trees with a chainsaw and a pole saw.    We did other things also--we had chickens.  I remember shoveling their poop.  My memory is that we worked hard as kids.   And the girls weren't treated any different from my brother.  I'm grateful for this. 


My husband gave me a call Wednesday morning.  "I know you'd like to go to this," he said.  "Would you like to take my place, and I'll stay with the kids?"  


Ooh--I jumped on that.  I was so excited.  But as the week went on, I became more concerned about going alone with the men.  Could I still work really hard?  Was I still strong enough to run the chainsaw?  Who would I ride with? 


Saturday morning, I still wasn't sure I was going to go.  I had decided I would go to the church and see if any other women had turned up.  And then I was going to see how I felt and decide.  


And then suddenly, blurry eyed, Anika stumbled into the bathroom.  She wanted to go.  Suddenly I had a perfect excuse to go and also a companion. 


It's kind of funny that I worried so much about crashing the men's party.  I'm not sure why.  Either way, I went.

As we drove into the town, we were surprised by the damage.  It seemed like every other yard had  large trees down.  We saw many power lines either hanging very low or on the ground.  Every house had a huge brush pile in front of it like this:

A power line is hanging very low on the left.  On the right are three big trees, which we cleared later.  Literally, every street I saw looked like this.  The town was a huge mess.  Many homes were damaged also.

We met first with about 200 other men and a few women at the church there, where we were given Mormon Helping Hands t-shirts and leather gloves.  We were also given work assignments around the area.  Our group was sent first to a park, where a bulldozer had pushed logs and brush into large piles.  Our job was to pull the piles apart and cut them into manageable pieces that could then be piled by the road where a contractor would chip the wood.  


After that, we headed to another park.  At this park, one tree had fallen on a picnic shelter.  After clearing a large tree, we started down the trail, clearing downed trees as we went.  At some points, you couldn't even see where the trail went.  I wondered if one area had been hit by a tornado.  It was a fun obstacle course for me to crash through the branches, go over and  under trees, to at some point climb on top of a horizontal tree that was about the height of my shoulders.  I wish someone had had a camera.  I have never seen such destruction.

The members of the church down there served  us lunch.  They served pork barbecue, coleslaw, and potato salad.  It's funny--I've never liked any of those things.  But as hard as I had worked, I didn't care.  I ate my entire plateful and was grateful.   The ladies who were serving us mentioned that many of them still were without power.  

This tree ruined the park bench. 

We didn't have a chainsaw large enough for this tree. 

Brush like this would go on and on.  Larger trees are of course mixed in there.  

After lunch we headed back to the park and finished clearing the trail.  I wish I had more pictures of the extent trail's damage, but I didn't want to miss any of the action.  these few pictures were taken by Anika.  She worked hard too though--she spent most of the day piling up branches and moving logs.  I sent her to get the camera a couple of times, just to make sure we had some pictures.   I also unfortunately don't have any pictures of her.  


After finishing the trails, we headed to where some other members of our ward were working to pull a bobcat out of a large root hole.  This tree had uprooted, leaving a muddy deep pool of water.  The bobcat had gotten a little too close and slipped in.  

Soon after we arrived, they got the bobcat out (I guess it had taken over an hour).  We sliced up the tree and then headed across the street to work on several trees there.  They were in the yard of a darling 90-year-old couple.  He came out with his walker and offered to pay us.  Of course we turned it down.  "Well, at least," he said, "let me take your picture so I can send it in for a newspaper article."  Hopefully I can get that picture and post it later. 

In the end, we started around 8:45 in the morning, and wrapped up at 6:45, then drove the hour and a half home.  I probably worked hard with that chainsaw for at least eight of those hours. I loved every minute.  There's something wonderful about working hard.  I was soaking wet with sweat all day--it was about 90 degrees and very humid.  I'm a little sore today, but it was a rewarding day yesterday.

We also came home to a surprise.  Matthew and the kids had cleaned the house.  

I'm so glad that my father expected us to work  hard and allowed us to have experiences that I don't think many girls are having.  At one point we came across a huge log straddling the trail about four feet high.  I called my Dad to get some advice on how to remove it safely.   He offered advice and then hung up before he heard me say, "Dad, thanks for teaching me how to use a chain saw."  I said it anyway.  

Just one more note:  I accomplished as much as any of the men out there.  But they were really cool about it, and many of them said so much to my husband today.