League City church becomes a port in the storm for Harvey evacuees

Posted at 5:50 p.m.

Melissa Rhodes drove her SUV loaded with extra bedding, clothes and other things to Bay Harbour United Methodist Church in League City. She was one in a line of cars, trucks and SUVs who’d cleaned out closets and emptied pantries to share with people driven from by their homes by Tropical Storm Harvey.

The church’s fellowship hall, classrooms and even hallways were lined with American Red Cross cots and blankets as volunteers roamed to help those in need of food and shelter, or even a friendly smile.

Church members Tamara Aubrey and Leigh Sweetin were two of many volunteers on hand.

Sweetin, a nurse who works for United Healthcare, said her employer let her spend her workday at the church, helping evacuees with medications, blood pressure and blood sugar screenings and other questions.

Sweetin said she’d been there just three hours and already had helped 20 people.

Aubrey roamed the facility, stopping to talk to many of the nearly 500 evacuees who’d been there since Sunday, even as word spread that the city of Dickinson had just announced a mandatory evacuation.

Brenda Nellor sat on an air mattress with her amiable dachshund, Frankie, as her daughter Kayla McMillin and McMillin’s boyfriend Carlos Mauricio sat nearby.

Nellor had just moved to League City from California seven months ago and McMillin and Mauricio arrived just last week.

After walking through chesthigh water Sunday morning, the group was picked up by the Coast Guard and eventually made it to this church. They arrived wet, with nothing but the clothes they were wearing.

Church volunteers had already sorted donations: there’s a room for children’s clothes and another for men’s and women’s. One room has paper goods, another has pet supplies, and there are baby things and games, too.

The Nellor family found dry clothes and shoes. Generous church volunteers have been taking evacuees’ clothes home to launder them.

“It’s amazing to me how Texans are warm, loving, giving and resilient,” Nellor said. “You people are amazing.”

Pastor Paul Clines said his church got in the Red Cross response program after Hurricane Ike, when members wanted to do something in a more organized way. They went through Red Cross training and this Hurricane has been their first real call to action, Clines said.

“The church has become what it always was intended to be — a place where people can get the help they need. Overnight we went from a place of worship to a place of care.”

When Saturday night’s deluge flooded streets and homes, Clines gave his copngregation a big assignment: “I said that instead of going to church we’re going to be the church ... in a tangible, practical way.”

Now Bay Harbour is a hub for Red Cross efforts in the League City area and goods are being sent out to other satellite shelters.

Jim Nuzzi is new to the area and new to the church. He and his wife moved here from Ohio a year ago because their daughter and son-inlaw live here.

“Our street is flooded and a little bit of water came through the ceiling, but that’s nothing compared to people sitting on their roofs. A whole lot of people are in worse shape,” he said. “What kind of Christian are you if you can’t help out. That’s what it’s all about.”