Church of God Ministry Sends 150 Volunteers To Help Clean Upper Dublin Following Ida's Damage
UPPER DUBLIN TOWNSHIP, Pa. (CBS) -- There's still a long way to go here in Upper Dublin in terms of clean-up. Cars are caved in and tree limbs are still on nearly every street.
But on Sunday, a group gave residents a glimmer of hope.
"Never. I always thought Pennsylvania was the safe state," Gwen Hart said. "Never thought in a million years that this could happen."
Over the last several days, it's been the same routine here in Upper Dublin.
"It was bad. I mean like our house started flooding. It was flooding throughout the whole house, rain was just seeping through the ceiling and my room," Hart said. "Actually, the ceiling fell through. So, yeah, we can't live there for a while."
Residents wake up and walk out to streets that no longer feel like home as they continue cleaning the mess left by Ida.
"I can't live in my house," Brenda Sullivan said. "It's uninhabitable at this point and I'm only two doors down from Laura, my ceilings are down. I haven't even been in my basement."
But on Sunday came a silver lining in the form of volunteers in bright green vests.
"They just showed up today," Sullivan said. "Thank god they are wonderful I have to say thank you."
The Church of God Ministry is deploying nearly 150 people to help.
"They're actually chopping the wood down with the residents and they're picking up all the branches and then anything else they need help with," Kimberly Atkins said.
Atkins said the organization has volunteers from the New Jersey-Pennsylvania area as well as from Washington D.C. After clean-up, they even surprised some with care packages.
"Just sort of comfort gifts," Atkins said, "But the real gift they gave me was their time and their love."
Residents told Eyewitness News the issue now is finding a place to dump all of this debris. The Upper Dublin Township Facebook page said on Monday, September 9, they will be doing a special yard waste collection for some residents.
