Freedom Forever team members sprung into action to help each other
The unexpected storm Uri left many Texans in the cold, including Freedom Forever team members. Going into the week of February 15th, Freedom Forever’s Texas crews knew it would be cold, but they would never have guessed it would turn out the way it did; neither did most Texans. By 7:30 am on Monday, some people had already gone without power for more than 5 hours. The team’s mindset quickly went into survival mode, focused on staying safe and taking care of their families. The common question amongst the crews was, “how long is this going to last?” Little did they know it would end up lasting five days.
By Tuesday morning, power had been out across the state for almost 48 hours, with temperatures reaching sub-zero conditions. Everyone on the team in Dallas was messaging each other back-and-forth, asking if everyone was ok, asking where they could get firewood.
At this point, Texas Director of Operations Chad Hamilton remembered having an excess of wood pallets at the Dallas branch. He quickly logged into the security cameras and saw that the office had power. Seeing this, he called on the Branch Manager to message the Dallas Squad, offering to allow the team to bring their family to get warm, charge their phones, and grab pallets to burn as firewood.
Help was on the way
Hamilton later drove to the branch and joined team members Tarik al Maliky and Brayden Wyatt in cutting up pallets and loading up their vehicles with ample amounts of firewood. Tarik and Braydon were then going to deliver the firewood and freshwater to team members who lived in the area who could not reach the branch. “We were just trying to make sure everyone and their families were safe,” said Hamilton
“This wasn’t just the Dallas Freedom Forever team,” Hamilton added. “In San Antonio, the Branch Manager, James Morin, had team members stay in his house when their power went out. He even had team members and their families stay in his fifth-wheel trailer outside so they could keep warm.”
At Freedom Forever, we are a family. We believe we have a duty to preserving the environment, but also to each other. Freedom Forever wants to bring the most reliable energy source to everyone. If you would like to join our family and cause, check out open positions at Freedom Forever.