Through the Cook Community Builders program, CSG employees receive paid volunteer hours to give back to the communities where they live and work.
“Dad, We Can Stay as Long as We Need To”: One Family’s Flood Relief in Uvalde
This summer, my family and I used our CCB hours to help the Uvalde, TX area recover from one of the worst floods in the town's history. In mid-July, about 28 inches of rain fell on the Uvalde area in just two days, including 8 inches in two hours. Dry riverbeds turned into 20-30 foot tidal waves and took out hundreds of homes. Through our church, we joined a cleanup effort that helped clean out more than 150 homes over three weeks.
The first home we worked on had taken on about six feet of water, and the family living there didn't know where to start. My wife Brooke and our 8-year-old daughter Penny began by gathering the family's important papers and photos so they could be sorted and dried. My sons Duncan, 15, and Kobe, 12, worked alongside me hauling out all the belongings, scooping out mud, cutting out sheetrock, pulling insulation, and drying the house out to stop the mold so the family could rebuild. It was a massive demo effort.
Going in, I honestly thought Penny might last a few hours in the Texas heat and humidity. Instead, after two straight 10-hour days, we finished that first home. We knew there were many more to go, and down the street was a house that had been completely underwater. By then it was already 6 pm, with an hour and a half drive home ahead of us, so I hesitated before asking whether we could help there for just an hour. To my surprise, all three kids said, "Dad, of course, we can stay as long as we need to."
When a catastrophe hits, it's gut-wrenching to see people's lives turned upside down. It's also incredibly rewarding to watch people from every walk of life come together to help.
— Scott Fieber, Chief Strategy Officer
More Stories.
.png)
