Houston help from Charles City

By Thomas Nelson, tnelson@charlescitypress.com

Starting today at noon, Marty Parcher and Dawn Staudt will be taking water, toiletries and other supplies down to Texas to assist people in the Houston area after Hurricane Harvey.

On Thursday night, Parcher, Staudt, their families and other community members packed and filled a large trailer for the trip.

Parcher is the Charles City assistant fire chief, and the fire station was used as a dropping-off point for donations. Staudt is the AMR Ambulance Service station chief.

“This came about (because) my daughter and my son live in Houston,” Parcher said.

His son works in west Texas in the oil fields, but his daughter, Kristen Hart, lives and works in Katy, a suburb of Houston.

Hart has lived there since 1997 and her home was able to avoid being flooded by inches, but her neighbors were not so lucky.

“Right behind their place is what they call a bayou, which is a essentially a big drainage ditch,” Parcher said. “It’s about 300 foot wide and 70 foot deep in the middle.”

The bayou is about 100 feet from their house, he said.

“It got into their neighborhood,” Parcher said of the floodwaters.

Hart is a manager of a veterinary clinic chain in the area.

“She’s an animal lover and she’s a helper of people,” Parcher said. “The neighbors’ houses started flooding so they invited them to their place, because they had stocked up on everything they needed.”

Prior to the hurricane and subsequent flooding Hart and her father had communicated four to five times a day, and Parcher was ready to go down to Texas to help if needed.

“I had told her we were going to keep close tabs,” Parcher said. “If things start getting dire it’s set up so that I will fly to Dallas. (Staudt) and three or four people from here will meet me there, with equipment. We will come and get you. We’re part of rescue so we can get you out.”

Parcher’s daughter’s house and family were fine, but her employees’ and neighbors’ homes were flooded. Six of Hart’s employees lost everything.

“She was upset as can be,” Parcher said.

“Since we don’t have to rescue you, maybe I can come up with some way that we can send you something,” Parcher told his daughter.

“This was less than a week ago,” he said. “This has been phenomenal. There’s been non-stop cars coming in today” dropping off donations from businesses and individuals.

Right now they have around $700 worth of gift cards and cash donations, and even more supplies to bring.

“We’ve got at least two or three pallets of water,” he said.

“Knowing that Irma is coming, we’ve separated part of this, and we’ll divide the rest of it one way or another to get it down there and get in touch with people,” Parcher said.

They’re also trying to get supplies to people suffering from the wildfires in the Western United States.

“We can get stuff to them if they need it,” Parcher said.

Huge bags of pet food were loaded in the trailer for the animals in Houston, as well.

“People forget about the pets,” Parcher said.

Before heading out, Parcher is sending his daughter an inventory of what they have so the supplies will go to people that need it.

Parcher and Staudt hope to make it to Dallas and stop for rest, and then continue to Houston from there.

“A week ago I never even thought this would happen,” Parcher said. “We are grateful to everyone that’s come out.”

At least half a dozen people came up to donate money to the cause Thursday alone.

“It makes you speechless,” Parcher said. “It’s heartwarming and surprising.”