08/13/2019
Today marks the one year anniversary of a series of events that lead to alot of changes in my life. Understanding how the world works is a mysterious thing. Natural Disasters happen all the time but never effected so closely.
This day around this time I started to see reports of flooding in the Schuylkill county and I never in a million years thought it would lead to the events that took place.
Homes completely destroyed with livelyhoods floating away in what seemed to be the longest 8 days of my life in Port Carbon Pennsylvania. All the region was effected. St. Clair , Tremont , minersville and Pottsville.
What happened next is what shifted myself and who I am personally. There where so many people that came together. It started with Ben Horvath from summit hill. Calling me, and telling me about port Carbon how Mayor Bucky Herndon and Chief Joe Ferraro where dealing with alot of lost after the river had crested. I was set up at that point now I had a place to set up command post in Port Carbon.
Shortly after the call there was alot of support from my local friends to load up and get it done. Rico, TJ. Walker, Nicholi, Shawn Walker, Jake love all showed up at the trading Post and we where on our way
After arriving and seeing the severity of the lost I dug in. I was not leaving till the last person was dug out of this. So it was. The outflow of support truly kicked in after setting up. All the communities in the surrounding areas began to
Volunteers led up by amazing people like Lori Lewis had been there with me since day 1 and continued to do so through the whole week as we all together served up thousands and thousands of hot meals in 3 communities in what would eventually become the fastest recovery effort I have I ever seen. With the help of The Port Carbon Municipality they where able to push thru and make a stand and rebuild.
This for me was a life lesson. Our community is ours. If we do not take care of it no one will. We as a whole cannot be defeated. Together we rise divided we fall.
Throughout this week alot of things happened and I will share with you as we progress the amazing people involved in the recovery efforts including the red Cross and salvation army. The large list of organizations including the Lehigh valley health network came together to make this all possible.
Still till this day the communities effected continue the efforts in recovering losses. Some will never be recovered and some just can be replaced. But one thing is for sure. The love and compassion that you all as a community showed. Well that's ours forever.
If you did donate please tag yourself in the comments I would love to say thank you ❤️
PORT CARBON, Pa. -- A chef in Schuylkill County has fed 8,000 people and counting who are in desperate need of help in the flood zone near Port Carbon. Flood waters ravaged the town on Monday. Some people weren’t able to have a hot meal until Hiram Quintana showed up. He is the owner of the Tamaqu...