Al Roker's 'Lend A Hand' Series Helps 85 Houston-Area Families

SPRING, TX — It was just supposed to be a donor breakfast for the families at Trinity Klein Lutheran Church.

But families who are still reeling from the flooding brought by Hurricane Harvey in August and September got much more than breakfast on Tuesday morning, when Al Roker from the NBC Today Show arrived with truckloads of supplies and gifts from Lowes, Orphan Grain Train, and Belfor Home Restoration.

Parishioners who’d lost so much, came on a chartered bus an hour before the sun rose in the east, and filed excitedly into the church for breakfast and alittle morning fellowship.

An unsuspecting Beverly Davis sat next to her sister, Karen Morris, and quietly nibbled on a bagel while others in the congregation slowly moved through the line for coffee and breakfast treats.

She could smile until she talked about the five feet of water that overtook her northeast side home in August, when flood waters from Cypress Creek crested and overflowed its banks and overtook homes and businesses.

“When I walked out of my home, the water was up to my chin,” she said as she recalled the horrific flooding from nearly three months ago. “My neighbor’s next door, they had a boat and they came to get me. Had they not come to get me, I would not be sitting here today.”

While families enjoyed breakfast inside the church, Roker and the NBC crew worked outside to get ready for the big reveal, which included a truckload of food and supplies from Orphan Grain Train, to replenish the church's food pantry and help feed 1,200 people per week, $350,000 in supplies from Lowes, which included a $2,000 gift certificate for each family who came out for breakfast.

Meanwhile, to help with the restoration and rebuilding process, Belfor, which is one of the premier worldwide disaster restoration companies, donated $100,000.

Roker, who has been doing his ‘Lend a Hand’ series on the NBC Today Show since 2005, said the choice to come to Spring as a first stop on the tour was made by his producers, who decided the most impact could be made and the most people could be helped in this Houston area suburb.

“This is touching people’s lives,” Roker said. “This, you know, is making a concrete impact on people’s lives.”

There were 85 church families who were affected by the flooding from Hurricane Harvey, with many losing their homes, and 39 of those families needed to be rescued fro flood waters.

As Hurricane Harvey ravaged the Houston area, 400 volunteers served the community and temporarily sheltered 44 individuals, while acting as a relief point for all first responders and as a hub for relief supplies.

Chris Singer, pastor of the Trinity Klein Lutheran Church, said as the flood waters receded volunteers helped clean out more than 100 homes in the area in the days after Hurricane Harvey, and they are in the beginning stages of rebuilding for some of those families.

“Right now we have a goal of rebuilding 50 homes…,” Singer said. "Our mission and vision is that we are here to reach the tens of thousands for Christ, and one of the things that's amazing is that we didn't think it was going to be through a hurricane."

Although many are hopeful as they move slowly toward rebuilding heir homes and their lives, some were overwhelmed by the generosity of strangers as they took in the events on Tuesday.

In fact, people were overcome with the announcement that Roker was there, and overjoyed when they saw the truckload of supplies.

Jasmine and Jesus Segovia have been living with worry since losing their home in Bear Creek when the flood waters were released from the Addicks and Barker Reserviors.

But that worry turned to tears of joy and hope when they saw the Lowe's pop-up store in the parking lot and were invited to go in with other families to get the supplies they needed.

Nearby, Linda Hernandez and her husband Trinidad weaved their way inside the temporary store and were able to get a few needed supplies.

"We had almost five feet of water in our home. We lost everything, clothes, tools," she said wiping away tears. "These people don't even know us. This is just overwhelming, when you're kind of standing there and you don't have any walls. But this is just overwhelming and I am just blown away."

Roker continued his ‘Lend a Hand’ tour with stops in San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday, and in Key West, Florida on Thursday.

Meanwhile, anyone who still wants to volunteer and help rebuild in the Spring area, or who still needs help themselves, is invited to sign up at www.heartfortexas.org or www.trinityklein.org.

Image: NBC Today Show Co-Host Al Roker surprise parishioners at Trinity Klein Lutheran Church in Spring on Tuesday morning with supplies and gift certificates. Roker is traveling to three areas that were impacted this year by hurricanes (Bryan Kirk/Patch Staff).

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