Retired Chicago Cop Hauls Truck Loads Of Supplies To Hurricane Ravaged Aransas Pass

COUNTRYSIDE, IL — Jack Kielczynski isn’t a storm chaser, but he is certainly known for showing up after a big one hits, and it’s usually with a truck load of needed supplies.

But Jack Kielczynski, 72, has done this before, having traveled New Jersey in 2012 after Superstorm Sandy and again to Baton Rouge in 2016 after a vicious storm dumped tons of rain and caused massive flooding in that Gulf Coast City.

Thus, a third trip seemed almost inevitable for the retired Chicago police officer, although he can’t seem to put his finger on what drove him to want to help. (Want to get daily news updates and news of other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Houston Patch morning newsletter.)

“I just felt like it should be done,” he said. “People were asking me what one person could do to help, but if you collect a lot of stuff in one spot for a couple of days, everyone wants to help.”

Two weeks after Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Coast, causing billions in damage and disrupting the lives of thousands of Texans, Jack rolled into Aransas Pass with two Penske trucks filled with bottled water, bleach, cleaning supplies, non-perishable foods and other items.

“There was nothing that we didn’t have,” Kielczynski said. “Someone put a generator in there, and we had a sump pump, bleach, ammonia, bedding and clothes. I can’t think of anything we didn’t have in there.”

All of it was courtesy of the people in the western Illinois community of Countryside, who opened their hearts to help their neighbors in Texas.

Countryside Mayor Sean McDermott allowed the trucks to be parked on city hall property with a simple sign letting people know what they were doing.

“He’s a good friend of mine and he knew that I’d done this before,” Jack said.

McDermott spoke with Carm Scarpace, general manager Westfield Ford in Countryside, who collectively donated money for one of the trucks and the fuel for the trip.

Within hours, the trucks were full and ready to head to Houston, to drop off supplies so Jack called the Houston Police Officer’s Union to let them know they were bringing supplies and would be there in a few days.

“They said they had enough,” Jack recalled. “He called me back and said they had a place that was really bad.”

Jack had never heard of Aransas Pass, but it wasn’t a place he’d forget anytime soon.

He left Countryside on with two police officers, Joe Gbur, and Norman Francis, on Sept.16 and arrived in Houston where they stopped to visit with fellow police officers before driving into Rockport and Aransas Pass, where Hurricane Harvey went ashore.

The trio unloaded supplies from one truck at the Aransas Pass Police Department collection point, with the help of police and firefighters who were there, and filled the collection point up with supplies, before driving the smaller truck to a church two blocks away and dropping off the the rest of the supplies.

“I have never seen so much damage,” Jack said. “It wasn’t this bad for Sandy. When we got into Rockport, it was as flat as iron. Windows were blown out or still boarded up in a lot of places, and the trees were all twisted. It looked like someone had tied them in knots.”

The drive between Rockport and Aransas Pass looked the same, and Jack said you could tell the difference between any of the town because the damage was so widespread.

“I didn’t see any damage in Houston like I saw there (in Aransas Pass),” he said. “It was a shock. You could see where an airport hangar had been blown apart.”

The three men dropped one of the trucks off in Corpus Christi, and drove into Houston and dropped off the second truck.

They caught a flight from Bush Intercontinental the next day and flew into Chicago.

“It was an experience, to say the least,” he said.

It will probably be the last time he takes on the aftermath of another hurricane.

At the age of 72, Jack says it’s getting a little harder to recover from the task of long cross-country drives, and the arduous task of unloading trucks.

“I’m still kind of recovering, but I am not sorry I did it,” he said. “It was a lot of work, but it was well worth it. The people there sure appreciated it.”

Image: Courtesy Jack Kielczynski

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