It was late Tuesday night when Ashley Flores and her coworkers from the Odessa Chamber of Commerce received a text message asking if they were available Wednesday to help distribute water.
Flores and a few of her coworkers answered yes as they teamed up with volunteers from First Connection Church to deliver water to those in need Wednesday morning.
The water line break from Monday has plunged all of Odessa into a boil alert, forcing people to go without water.
Flores and volunteers Wednesday were delivering water to elderly people ages 75 and up as well as those who don’t have a vehicle or have special needs.
“So far, we’ve made about 30 deliveries to people,” Flores said. “On the deliveries that I’ve made, it’s been nice to get to talk to people because they seem like they were in need.”
Flores came in to First Connection Church to start helping distribute water at around 8 a.m. Wednesday.
“It’s very gratifying especially when you have to climb three flights of stairs with cases of water,” Flores said. “It makes you understand that you’re doing this for people that are older. Seeing their faces light up when they answer their door is pretty amazing.”
Volunteer workers from the Odessa Chamber of Commerce teamed up with members from First Connection Church to help deliver water to those in need.
“The City of Odessa has provided the water for us,” First Connection Church Pastor Dawn Weaks said. “The assistant manager called and we try to be regularly available to the city if there are needs or emergencies like with the freeze and other events. We talked to Phillip Urrutia and he asked if we could assist with the need for people who cannot get out of their homes so we said yes and then started calling our church for volunteers as well as our chamber which has been wonderful to send us volunteers today.”
Weaks said there were about 20 volunteers from First Connection Church.
“We had 100 cases (of water) starting out,” Weaks said. “We’re doing one per-household.”
By about 10:30, Weaks said they had delivered to about 35 households.
They were taking calls at First Connection Church until about 2 p.m. Wednesday.
While the water was mostly delivered, those that were able stopped by First Connection Church for water.
One of the people that was helped was Herb Morgan, 87, who has lived in Odessa for 47 years.
“It feels good to have water,” Morgan said. “You better believe it. I missed it the other day at the (Ector County) coliseum. I got there a few minutes late. They had gone home.”
This week’s water crisis hasn’t been the first emergency the community of Odessa has faced recently as the pandemic and last year’s winter storm are still clear in people’s minds.
“We’ve had a lot of challenges in our community,” Weaks said. “People are still stepping up to help each other. There’s a verse in Galatians that says don’t grow weary in doing good and I think that describes Odessa.”
Erika Lay of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce was another volunteer helping out Wednesday.
“The chamber is really big about helping out with the community,” Lay said. “Renee Earls asked if anybody can help with the distribution of water so I’m always willing to help the community, especially the elders and handicapped. I brought my daughter along to help out.”
She was with her daughter Addison Lay Wednesday at First Connection Church.
“It feels good knowing that you’re helping people in need,” Addison said who is going into sixth grade at Compass Academy.
“I’m thankful that our surrounding towns are helping out Odessa,” Erika said. “It just says a lot about West Texas.”
