By Peter Hightower, Area Media Specialist
Many communities across Texas are still scrambling to recover from the blackouts and water interruptions caused by last week’s record-setting snow storm and freezing temperatures. One week after the power was restored to most areas, some smaller communities still don’t have access to potable water and remain under boil orders from their local governments. Grocery store chains are struggling to restock shelves with perishable items such as meat, dairy and produce that were spoiled during the power outages. Bottled water and paper goods don’t last more than a few minutes on the shelves even with the stores imposing per-customer limits on purchases.
District President Ross Davidson, who oversees branches of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Del Rio, Eagle Pass, Uvalde, Carrizo Springs and Cotulla, recognized that the Church was in a position to provide life-sustaining help during this time and submitted a humanitarian request to the Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City. The Church responded by sending seven truckloads of food and water that was distributed over two days to small towns throughout the district.
One truckload containing 20 pallets of water was delivered to the City of Uvalde Emergency Services Department on Thursday. Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin was on site to oversee the delivery and personally offer his thanks to President Davidson. “We are so grateful for this help right now and we’re going to be able to help so many people because of it.” He explained that some of the smaller satellite communities in his county were still without power and water. “We are going to send a lot of this shipment out to places like Camp Wood, Sabinal and Rock Springs where they’re still boiling their water.”
President Davidson estimated that this donation would impact approximately 16 communities throughout the ten counties in his district. He continued “Clean water is a necessity that we all take for granted until we don’t have it any longer. Every single person in this area was impacted by this weather event and we’re so happy to be able to provide some assistance to help get our communities back to normal. As members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that through this type of service we can follow His example and help bring His light into the world.”
