Mormon Helping Hands

Besides driving hundreds of thousands of people from their residences and destroying hundreds of homes, the severe November wildfires in Southern California left many steep hillsides devoid of the vegetation that helps hold the soil in place during rain storms. There is great concern about severe soil erosion and mudslides this winter in the areas affected by the fires. See the following article. (http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1955426.php)

Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints frequently pitch in and help out when their neighbors need help, especially when a disaster strikes. Several local stakes (groups of congregations) of the Church having been helping with clean up and damage control efforts in the interim months. The volunteers wear yellow t-shirts with the caption "Mormon Helping Hands".

Our stake has had several such service projects scheduled, but today's was the first not cancelled due to poor weather or other issues. This morning about 40 members of our stake worked in the Modjeska and Williams Canyons areas (http://tinyurl.com/2qq2rw) filling sand bags, hauling straw bales, and placing them along drainage areas to control the runoff and steer it away from homes. The work was hard and we're going to be stiff and sore, but it felt good to help out the folks whose home are threatened. Here are a few of the photos I took. Click on the photos to see enlarged versions.