Early on Wednesday, September 16, Hurricane Sally made landfall near Gulf Shores, Ala., as a Category 2 hurricane and moved through the Florida Panhandle, bringing flooding even as it weakened to a tropical depression. (NY Times)

By early in the day on Thursday, September 17, our employees were already thinking of ways to help.

One of our former employees, Randy, had recently relocated to the Mobile, Alabama area to continue recovery from a severe health issue. (You can read more about this here: On the Road to Recovery.)

A member of our team, Joseph, took it upon himself to check on Randy and his family. He quickly learned:

They did have one generator, which is currently powering the hospital bed and a refrigerator.
There was only one tree down on their property; however, their neighbors didn't fare nearly as well as they did.
Randy needs air conditioning - and they currently don't have it.
And they were running short of essential supplies

In a few hours, Joseph had a travel plan and had gathered miscellaneous supplies, a portable air conditioner, fuel, and food to be delivered.

By 2:00 PM on Thursday, Joseph was ready to head south. But before leaving, he learned that the 80-year old step-mom of Bobby, one of his team members, lived 60-minutes from his planned destination and had also been affected by the storm. She was without power.

A second generator was located, purchased, and loaded into the truck.

Before going to Randy's with the bulk of the supplies, he stopped to deliver and install the generator at Bobby's stepmom's home and just in time to save all the food in the freezer/refrigerator.

She asked, 'why did you do this?'

Joseph replied, 'that's just how we do things on Brindlee Mountain.'

The last leg of the trip to Randy's was an adventure as what should have been a 60-minute drive took well over 2 hours as Joseph had to drive off-road some to get around debris.

The items were delivered to Randy, and they were much appreciated.

Friday afternoon, Joseph was back home.

Thank you, Joseph, for living out the Brindlee Mountain values by serving with excellence.

It's In Our DNA