Monterey Lions still helping in times of
disaster
Homes completely flooded.
Destroyed.
And people in shock, not knowing what to do next.
“We saw this fellow who just looked lost,” said Ken Hall, who, along with fellow members of the Monterey Lions Club Disaster Response Team, was on the scene to aid in the recovery effort following flash flooding near Nashville on Aug. 11. “We pulled in and asked if he needed our help.”
Turns out, he did.
“He didn’t know where to start because it is quite an overwhelming thing,” Hall said. “The water was still standing in his house. It had been as high as five feet, but while we were working it was probably two inches.”
So the Monterey team, which also included Roy Dishman, Trish Stover, Dan Sheffler and Don Cetta, got busy emptying the man’s Gallatin neighborhood home of furniture and appliances and ripping up heavy, soaking carpet — all the while avoiding any unwelcome wildlife that happened to wash inside.
“The man’s wife asked if we had found the snake they had seen in the front bedroom,” Hall said. “Thank goodness we were finished because I don’t like to deal with snakes.”
The trip to Gallatin was the third deployment in as many months for the Monterey team — the other two having been in response to a tornado in Moore, Okla., in June and flash flooding in South Pittsburg in July.
And should another disaster arise, they’ll be ready to roll again.
“Our trailer is loaded,” Hall said of the team’s eight-foot equipment trailer. “All we have to do is hook to it and go.”
Which is just what they’ve been doing.
“Nashville put out a request for disaster response teams, and I just got my people together and went,” Hall said. “Several houses in the neighborhood had been completely flooded, and they had crews there already helping.”
It’s a good feeling to lend a hand, he said.
“Any time you can help a neighbor, you need to, and Nashville is our neighbor,” he said.
And those “neighbors” appreciate the aid.
“The man we were helping told us, ‘I can’t repay you all with money, but if anything ever happens in Monterey I’ll be the first one there to help you guys,’” Hall said. “And that’s really what it’s all about. Even on our trip to Oklahoma, something similar was said... That’s what makes this country strong.”
And it’s something he and the rest of the Monterey Lions Club Disaster Response Team, which formed in 2008 in response to tornado damage in Macon County, look forward to continuing as the need arises.
“I’ve always wanted to do it and have dabbled in it over the years, but as I get older, there will be less I can do physically,” said Hall, a retired police officer who now serves as Monterey’s cultural administrator. “That’s why the other team members and I want to do as much as we can do now.”
It’s an addictive thing, he added.
But in a good way.
“It’s not like an adrenaline rush — it’s a little bit different from that,” Hall said. “It’s a warm feeling that you get from helping somebody.”
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