Water

Followed Dennis and Leslie to a house on Colonial Drive a short distance away.  It's a good quarter mile from the creek that overflowed, but incredibly, a foot of water had entered the house. 
We were all stunned at the destruction water can do: Every room had to be emptied of everything in it, including pictures on the walls.  The only exceptions were the upper reaches of the closets and a few items in the bathroom.
What a job, but how well Dennis directed the "crew," which consisted of them, Bob and Bessie F., five others from Tuckerton Presbyterian, and me.  Dennis told us the living room was "the staging area," and that we were to put all wooden furniture there.  The dining room table somehow escaped serious damage and we put small items from tables and other flat surfaces on it.  Stuffed furniture and cloth items that couldn't be washed were taken directly to the curb.
We worked for several hours, the men hauling the big stuff, the women smaller.  The guys had to saw the legs off a sofa to get it though the door.  After most of the furniture was out, they ripped up the carpet, which was in most of the house, and what a sloppy, soggy mess that was.  Once it was gone, some of the extent of the damage was evident: The floor was covered with muddy water and it was even somewhat slippery to walk on.  Dennis said the bottom four feet of the sheet rock would have to be removed and replaced in order to prevent mold.
At the same time we were working, so were others.  Mathis Construction came to cut up the felled trees and feed them into the chipper.  At least three big cedars in the backyard and two in the front were down, so it took them a long time.  Of course, trees were down all over this neighborhood and every house I saw had huge piles of ruined furniture and personal possessions outside it.
While I was there, the homeowner, Judy, came back, hoping to help, I guess.  She was very appreciative, but simply overwhelmed and seemed dazed.  She was staying with a church member, but her daughter is coming to be with her today.
I had four large plastic containers in the garage that were empty, so asked if they would be useful.  Was told yes and went home to get them.  We used them for pictures we had to take off the walls.
We put linens and other cloth items in plastic bags and took them away to wash and dry.  I took three bed pillows and a king-sized puffy bedspread; couldn't salvage the pillows, but washed and dried the spread at the Laundromat. 
Almost as disturbing as the destruction that could be seen was the odor that filled the house and clung to almost everything in it.  I suppose the water, on its way to the area, picked up decaying vegetation, trash, and other unpleasant things.  It was dark and musty, with some indefinable foul scent added.  It smelled like death to me.  We threw open windows and the F.'s went home to get box fans to try to drive the stink away.  We were all glad it was  sunny and briskly cool.
It was an eventful day, but good to be engaged in something that has a definite "payoff"--assisting a fellow human.  Can't get more satisfying than that.