After working all morning organizing and doing logistics, the church we were working with had a few members request help with chainsaw and tarping work.
We hopped in trey's truck and headed that way. This was the first time we really moved out of the neighborhood we had been working in, and moved into the most effected areas.
The first thing that stood out was how terrible the road congestion was. There were tons of cars parked on roads, several of the roads were closed as utility companies were lifting poles and energizing lines, and most frustratingly of all, roads were congested with people just driving around that looked like they were just love streaming on Instagram.
This really drove home the importance of clearing roads and driveways.
We eventually made it to the tarping job and got attached to one of treys friend's who was a professional roofing contractor.
This was where we also really started to see the best and worst of people. On the best side you had the roofing contractor we got attached to. He actually paid all of his employees to come into work, and didn't charge any home owners for any of the work they all did that day.
On the worst side we started to see some fly by night tree services and roofing services. Requesting payment from people that are going through the worst days of their lives in cash, to cut things that didn't need to be cut. A lot of people also came in to request cash deposits on roofing replacements that we not actual roofing companies.
Outside of chainsaw work, roof tarping is one of the other main jobs that is completed after a storm. Most roofs have some form of damage, even if it's just missing shingles, and you want to temporarily repair those spots with tarps to prevent water damage to the home. We had some storms roll in on Sunday 2 days after the initial storm, and major rain coming that Tuesday.
Even if the home was a total loss, you sometimes wanted go tarp parts of the roof go protect valuables from rain as you prepared to pack and move.
I am going to add a roofing hammer and a number of roofing nails to my list of items to add after this emergency, as well as tarps.