Volunteers with Texas Baptist Men are on the ground in Florida, among the first to help with a cleanup process expected to take months.
Wednesday, they began flood recovery work in Naples where residential streets are lined with lifetimes of mementos and belongings piled up and discarded like trash after Ian drowned homes in the storm surge.
“We get into communities where every house on every street for block after block, and anywhere from two to four, maybe even six feet of water inside of them,” said Wendell Romans.
Romans said his team of volunteers has been going door to door, looking for homeowners in need of a helping hand.
Get DFW local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC DFW newsletters.
“Some of them are still in a state of shock, you know, wondering what they're going to do. ‘Where do I go next? Who do I talk to?’ And that's where we step in,” Romans said.
The teams of anywhere from 6 to 14 volunteers are performing mud-outs. That’s the process of removing debris from homes filled with sludge along with sheetrock and insulation ruined by water.
They’re clearing the homes free of charge so that those who live here, many without insurance, can begin to rebuild.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
It’s a daunting task.
“The flooding is just massive. It's just street after street,” said Romans.
Texas Baptist Men are just one part of a massive outpouring of support.
Soon, the group will be joined by additional flood recovery teams.
“Because God tells us to. He tells us to help others,” said Romans.
He said the group will stay as long as there are still projects waiting to be done and enough volunteers to accomplish the work.