Several communities in our branch were affected by the flooding. Saturday evening it rained all day. That evening I got a call asking if I was okay, because Stockton was flooding. There was a river of water covering the road. The bridge was covered with water. Some people were stopped in front of our house, and we invited them to stay with us that night. The water had risen more than 15 feet in Stockton. Basements were filled with water to the floorboards. Some homes were filled to the ceilings and were completely destroyed. The next morning as I drove around, I saw many people who were now homeless.
The church quickly organized volunteers to go out and help members of the branch, to help clean out homes, sheetrock, and carpet. This was a dirty and hard job. Some members carried buckets of mud out of basements. One family had their basement full and about 18 inches of water on the main floor. They lost everything: their home, cars, and landscaping.
The church brought in a load of cleaning materials and hygiene kits. I was able to help coordinate the distribution of these kits to people in the community. While we were helping to unload the truck, a man pulled up in an older car. He had a small boy with him who was carrying a package of paper towels and he carried them to the lady to donate them to the cleanup effort. This reminded me of the Widow’s Mite. What a wonderful teaching moment for the small boy.