Crisfield of Texas: During hurricane, 'They were there' for us

Nearly five years ago, life in Crisfield was turned upside down when Hurricane Sandy roared up the Chesapeake Bay, flooding homes and businesses and damaging infrastructure.

The city eventually got back on its feet thanks to the many volunteers who arrived to help rebuild. Now residents plan to pay it forward.

At the 70th annual National Hard Crab Derby this weekend, the Crisfield Area Chamber of Commerce and other groups will be soliciting donations for Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in Texas as a way to say thanks.

Funds raised this weekend will be split between the two groups that stayed the longest to help with Crisfield’s rebuilding effort: United Methodist Committee On Relief and Lutheran Disaster Response.

RELATED: How to donate locally to Hurricane Harvey victims

“It’s going to the people who helped us after Sandy,” said Chamber President Bill Buttrill. “If a home needed repairs or replacement, they were there.”

John Tawes, a Chamber board member, said he has talked to other groups in Crisfield to see if they will help, too. So far, organizers of the Crisfield Mud Bog plan to raise money for the effort at their event Saturday at the Elks Lodge.

“I think if everybody works in the same direction, we can make a significant difference,” he said.

Crisfield Mayor Kim Lawson is heading up the fundraising effort to take some of the burden off the Chamber, which will be busy during the next few days with Crab Derby events, starting with the Miss Crustacean pageant Thursday and ending with fireworks Sunday.

Lawson said he and members of Miss Crustacean’s court will collect money along the route of the Crab Derby parade starting at 11 a.m. Saturday on Main Street, at the main gate to the Derby grounds at Somers Cove Marina on Saturday and Sunday, and at the Boat Docking Contest starting at 1 p.m. Sunday at the City Dock.

RELATED:After a disaster, all donations are not equal

The city also will accept donations on its website, www.cityofcrisfield-md.gov, through Sept. 30, he said.

All the money collected will go to the two relief groups with a request it be used toward Hurricane Harvey efforts, Lawson said. Both organizations have no administrative costs, so all the money goes toward relief projects, he added.

The Chamber of Commerce also plans to donate a minimum of $500, and may give more depending on how much money it makes at the Crab Derby, Buttrill said.

Members of United Methodist Committee On Relief, or UMCOR, and Lutheran Disaster Response arrived in Crisfield soon after Hurricane Sandy. 

The Rev. Phillip Huber of Lutheran Disaster Response offered his administrative expertise to the Somerset County Long Term Recovery Committee while UMCOR volunteers hammered and sawed away at local houses by day and camped out on cots in a church basement at night.

Lawson said the UMCOR volunteers helped improve houses in Crisfield, many of which weren’t in the best of shape even before the hurricane. Now many of them have new walls, flooring, appliances and heating systems.

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And federal disaster aid to Somerset County has helped with repairs and improvements to roads and infrastructure in the city.

“Crisfield is far better now than before Hurricane Sandy struck,” he said.

The worst flooding from Hurricane Sandy started the afternoon of Oct. 29, 2012, shortly after high tide, when water from Tangier Sound rushed into Crisfield's streets. Soon residents were calling 911 as the floodwaters rose, and local police and firefighters frantically tried to rescue as many people as they could before the search was suspended at dark.

The next morning officials mounted a door-to-door search to remove the remaining city residents who spent a frightening night trapped in their homes by rising floodwaters. 

News coverage of the flooding in Houston reminded people in Crisfield of that night, and it has made people want to help, Tawes said. 

“It just brings back memories of five years ago,” he said.

Elsewhere on the Shore, two poultry companies are making donations to the hurricane relief effort. On Wednesday, Perdue Farms announced on Twitter it was loading up the first of more than 20 truckloads of chicken donations to flood-stricken Texans working with the Feeding America network of food banks. Allen Harim also announced it, too, was shipping a truckload of chicken totaling 40,000 pounds, through Operation BBQ Relief. 

Another way to help

Visit https://txvoad.communityos.org/cms/node/104 for a list of Texas organizations involved in the relief effort.

Twitter: @LizHolland5