Kentucky residents help with Houston cleanup efforts after Hurricane Beryl

Kentucky residents are helping clean up efforts in Texas after Hurricane Beryl hit earlier this week, which has left at least 10 people dead in the United States.

Emergency Disaster Services, a Lexington-based logistics company, is working in Beryl. Nearly all of the workers are from Kentucky, including truck drivers hauling heavy equipment.

“It’s something you have to take care of yourself with. We love this work. It’s hard work.”

That’s the work being done at seven base camps, according to Matt Daley, EDS’s director of communications and logistics.

“More teams that were originally supposed to come are now coming into town and setting up, so the size of the camp is expanding,” Daley said.

Daley can’t say enough about the hard work and dedication of the crew.

“None of this is easy work, so hats off to our teams who haven’t showered, who haven’t gone to bed in 48 hours, who continue to build new sites.”

They are doing it in extreme heat, to help those affected by the Beryl disaster. NBC News reports that more than a million people are still without power in the Houston area.

“Heat plays another unpleasant role, because anyone can live without electricity for a few days, but that’s not possible when the heat index exceeds 101, 103.”

For Daley, the fact that EDS is in Houston in a secondary role is gratifying. But ultimately, credit should go to the people in charge of public safety.

“These are the people in the utilities who are actually doing a much more dangerous job than we are, which is working overtime to get the power back on, and just the fact that we’re doing a little bit of that always makes us feel good.”