In my ten years working with Common Ground Youth and now Common Ground Volunteers we have done all sorts of dirty jobs. Locally, it’s been demo and clean up or light construction work. We haven’t had to help with the after effects of a natural disaster in our own backyard. We’ve helped in New Orleans for years helping folks with after effects of Katrina and the tornados that have washed and ripped away homes, hopes, and communities. 

When Hurrican Ida hit the Montgomery / Chester County area on 1-2 September all of that changed. Many communities had catastrophic flooding from the 7-9 inches of rain that fell on the area. As rivers crested the swells consumed communities like Mont Clare and Lower Providence. Surveying the damage, the next morning to a beautiful blue morning was surreal. The sky belied the events of the previous 24 hours. News reports of the flooding brought it all back. A call to action was put out by Common Ground Volunteers and we were on it. Labor Day weekend wasn’t going to be only barbeques and relaxation. It was going to be a beginning of a month of service to our neighbors. 

Fortunately, CGV Director Laurie Smith is an excellent planner and had scoped out the area and coordinated with leaders on the ground in Mont Clare and we were positioned to bring many hands to make light work and help some families out. We met in Mont Clare on September fifth and got to it. Homes along the canal had flooding of their basements and in many cases half to all of the first floor. All the power was cut. The race against the mold had begun. 

The wet warm conditions of September here are ideal for black mold to proliferate and take over. Soils, silt, and runoff could fill basements with water and mud that were full of nasty chemicals and fuel oil from furnaces and tanks. We had to pick our opportunities to help carefully. The safety of our volunteers is paramount and each job begins with a safety briefing on what to expect, what to watch out for, and considerations for using hand tools around others and how to safely perform these jobs. Or second highest priority is maintaining the dignity of the people we’re helping out. Our group has a lot of camaraderie and laughs on our jobs but we’re always mindful that we are working on people’s homes and lives. When someone is faced with what feels like the total loss of their home of decades, they may need a minute. We give it to them. 

Our first home was for an older family and we helped get out kitchen appliances and begin removing wood paneling and interior walls. The streets were crowded with dumpsters from the Township. They were filling up fast. The flotsam of lives, holidays, furniture, photos, knickknacks from holidays added to the pile. Sidewalks were cluttered with stoves, fridges, dishwashers, and hot water heaters. The next home had us human chaining debris from the basement and helping to clear a garage packed with damaged material. This was an abrupt change from the previous 18 months of isolation from the pandemic but the isolation had not removed our collective humanity. Collection points had sprung up at churches and at Lock 29 Brewing to get food, clothes, and essentials for distribution to families impacted by the storm. There was food and drinks donated to the army of volunteers who came to help out. Really, is there any pizza better than workday pizza folded over and maybe no longer that hot with your friends knowing you’re lightening someone’s burdens? There isn’t. Within a few hours we had helped to fill two dumpsters with debris. Labor Day Monday was more of the same.