At Texas Baptist Men's warehouse, volunteers are loading up disaster relief gear. They are preparing to roll out Friday morning heading to Florida to help in any way they can.
"We're doing all kinds of things from flood recovery where we actually go into people's homes, tear out everything that's been flooded, get that out of there so they can start rebuilding,” Texas Baptist Men Associate Executive Director John Travis Smith said. “We are going to be feeding there. So, people who are stuck in shelters or people who need food, we'll be doing that."
Help also headed that way from power companies here in North Texas.
Denton Municipal Electric has 7 trucks and 17 crew members arriving in Florida Thursday evening. When flood waters go down, they'll be ready to get power back up.
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"Setting poles,” Denton Municipal Electric Line Division Manager Brad Watts explained. “Stringing in new line. Picking up line that has been blown down, broken poles. Picking up services and changing out transformers. Just whatever damage the storm has caused, we fix."
Oncor has 500 employees and contractors ready to go in Florida.
For these crews, it's more than just a job.
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"You want to help people for one,” Watts said. “To help their customers and the people that are in need and also you never know when something might happen and your utility and you'll need the type of mutual aid and assistance."
The volunteers and crew members also feel it's their duty.
"That's our task and we're called to do, to love our neighbor,” Smith said. “We want to go, not just say that in words, in prayers, and thoughts, but actually go in deed and in action."
"To the linemen, it's rewarding because you know you are helping people,” Watts said. “In line work, line work is a brotherhood. We watch each other's back whether it's Denton or Lakeland Florida. We are a brotherhood."
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Oncor also deployed 500 employees and contractors as part of the broader mutual assistance effort to preposition power resources.
Late Thursday, spokesperson Kerri Dunn said the crews were still waiting to be dispatched to wherever they were needed.
“This is an incredibly catastrophic storm. We see storms and tornadoes in Dallas, so we know what it means to be without power, the challenges of that. But with a hurricane of this scale, you're not just without power, you're without Internet. You're without phone service. You're without water, without sewer systems," said Dunn. "We have roads that aren't just covered in debris but have been completely washed away. We have bridges that have been knocked out of place. So there are communities along the waterside that aren't reachable, and you've got electric infrastructure equipment that's been completely decimated."
Thursday night, American Medical Response deployed 10 ambulances from Arlington filled with supplies and crews from around the country.
"We'll basically be doing whatever's been requested as far as getting people from wherever they are in this situation to where they need to be," said Peter Como.
It's an effort that's just one part of the Texas-sized response en route to or already positioned in Florida as thousands, if not millions, begin to rebuild their lives.
In Fort Myers, a crew of 45 members of Texas A&M Task Force 1 joined a federal search operation organized by FEMA.
They were deployed along with dozens of members of the Texas Division of Emergency Management and the Texas A&M Forest Service.
