With millions in Texas still without running water, a New Jersey plumber and his family made a 22+ hour car trip earlier this week to help those in need.
When Andrew Mitchell heard that plumbers in Texas were overwhelmed with calls regarding burst and leaking pipes caused by last week’s deep freeze, he decided to head down to the Houston area to help out.
"Some people's homes have lost power, heat, some people have been without water for days -- almost over a week," Mitchell’s wife, Kisha Pinnock told WABC-TV.
So over the weekend, Mitchell and Pinnock, their 2-year-old son, Blake, as well as Mitchell’s brother-in-law and apprentice Isaiah Pinnock packed up a truck and headed for Texas. Before they left, the group bought $2,000 worth of plumbing supplies, as they remain hard to find in Texas.
According to CNN, Kisha Pinnock has family in Texas who quickly connected Mitchell with friends and neighbors who needed plumbing services. By the time they arrived Sunday afternoon, they already had several jobs lined up.
“By the time we got here there was already about four or five jobs lined up from my sister, and we just hit those first and then everything after that has really just been referrals from like the initial customers, like their friends and family," Kisha Pinnock told CNN. "Since we've been here, it has really been nonstop."
CNN reports that Mitchell and Isaiah Pinnock completed more than a dozen jobs by Tuesday, and had full days of work lined up for Wednesday and Thursday.
"Andrew and Isiah — Isiah has been a huge helper, Andrew has been teaching him a lot, they have been getting busy and getting to work and we are really excited and thankful that we could be a blessing to other people," Kisha Pinnock told WABC.
The group initially planned to return to their hometown of Morristown, New Jersey by next week. But according to CNN, they’ve found so many people in need of help that they now plan to stay in Houston for two weeks.
"I think that we made a difference, for sure," Pinnock told CNN.
