AUSTIN, Texas – Homeowners throughout Texas are struggling to find contractors to repair storm damages since the historic freeze in February.
The increase in repair needs has created a lack of labor throughout the state, so cities are teaming up with nonprofit groups to bring volunteer contractors from across the country to help Texans fix their homes.
Orlando Chiacchio is one of those volunteers for Water Mission, which provides water aid during natural disasters. The New Yorker flew to Austin after hearing about a need for contractors on the news.
Already unemployed because of the pandemic, Chiacchio says he was already looking for something to do.
“I was like yeah, that’s a great way to have a vacation and help at the same time,” he said.
His first job is at a mobile home in Florence, Texas, a rural town about an hour outside of the city. He spends most of his time crawling in and out from under the house, looking for leaks and cracks in the pipes.
“We’re just going to try and find all these cracks with air instead of water, so we don’t make more of a mess,” he said.
He works with three other plumbers from across the country who also answered the call.
William Whittington is from North Carolina and owns his own professional plumbing company. In fact, he drove his work van all the way to Austin.
“It’s my first time going and doing uh, working on a disaster relief,” Whittington said.
Jake Salandanan and Michael Mitchell hopped in their truck and drove here together from Maryland.
The team of four make up more than 40 contractors who were in the state for the next 14 days.
It’s all part of the partnership with Water Mission, Plumbers Without Borders, The Austin Disaster Relief Network and the City of Austin, to name a few.
Organizers tell Spectrum News 1 the Central Texas region had received more than 1,200 requests for repairs and that number is probably much higher now.
So far, the program has fixed hundreds of households that have been without water for weeks or months, and many of those are families in rural communities like the home Chiacchio and his crew were working on.
On the day Spectrum News 1 followed him, Chiacchio worked under the house fixing a pipe when he heard the sound of running water and couldn’t contain his excitement.
“Oh, someone just flushed something up above our head. Did you hear that?” he said.
These burst pipes aren’t quick fixes either. It took four plumbers and about three days to completely restore plumbing to the mobile home in Florence.
And these plumbers aren’t just fixing showers and toilets again, they’re in the business of preventative medicine, as Whittington will tell you.
“If you don’t have running water and safe sewage flowing away in a safe manner, that creates an environment for a lot of diseases to breed,” he said.
Plumbers Without Borders is saving lives, not just fixing pipes.
In Austin you can apply for assistance by contacting the Austin Disaster Relief Network online here or by phone at 512-806-0800. If you live outside of Austin, you can apply for aid through the Crisis Clean Up which serves Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis and Williamson counties at 1-800-329-8052.