Most often, when a person hears the word “disaster” thoughts of fire, floods, and tornadoes come to mind.
But Albany and Clinton County learned last week that disaster can come in other forms as well, particularly the disaster that struck the Albany Water Department facilities and infrastructure, leaving parts of the city limits, and much of the county, without running water.
The outage for some was a few days, whilefor others in the most far outlying regions of Clinton County went without running water for well over a week.
Some are just now seeing their water service being restored.
During the time of the water crisis here, there have been constant instances of local residents, businesses and professional agencies who have reached out to help relatives, neighbors and people they didn’t know before with assistance – mostly water related, but also with other acts of kindness.
Churches with water, the Twin Lakes Family Wellness Center and the The Med Center at Albany opened it’s shower facilities to anyone who needed them, agencies provided and passed out bottled water to anyone who needed it, and the Clinton County Extension Service secured a large portable water tank that provided water for local farmers who needed it to provide for their livestock, while the Albany Fire Department made countless trips back and forth to neighboring Pickett County, Tennessee, collecting water to refill the agriculture tank.
One of the most used and most visible forms of relief during the crisis came from the Kentucky unit of the Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief Services through the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC).
With the Albany Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1096 providing the host site at its headquarters on Hopkins Street, two units with the Disaster Relief service were in place with two separate portable facilities to provide hot showers and laundry service to residents affected by the water crisis, all at no charge, to anyone who needed them.
With a trailer equipped with washers and dryers, the laundry service came through the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) from the Blood River Baptist Association in the far western Kentucky region of Marshall and Galloway counties.
Glenn McNeely, from the Kentucky Lake area of Benton, Kentucky, told the Clinton County News that bringing the laundry trailer to Albany last week was just part of the ministry he does with the association when it is needed.
“This is my laundry unit, it goes anywhere that there is a water crisis or any need for laundry service,” McNeely told the Clinton County News last week during a brief interview at the VFW Post. “We’ve done county fairs, flooding, any water crisis – we take this and do the public’s laundry. We wash, dry and fold it if they want it.”
McNeely said that the service is provided to areas like Clinton County at no charge to anyone who needs it, and while on the scene of a water disaster, he also is able to minister to many who seek out the laundry service.
“We try to share the gospel with them and help them during their time of suffering,” McNeely said. “We love being able to do it. So far, we’re at 158 loads for the week, and we have more to do.”
Self-contained and self-sufficient, the trailer that McNeely operates has two generators for power supply and laundry supplies are carried on board wherever it goes.
“We carry our own supplies with us – laundry detergent, dryer sheets. When we clean laundry, it all goes into our baskets, we take it in, fold it, put it into clean bags and put it in their basket or container, “ McNeely said. “I never put laundry into a dirty basket after it’s been washed, that’s just one thing I’m picky about.”
He said that the laundry unit was previously used through another Association but was acquired by the Blood River Association, which donated it for use anywhere in Kentucky when a disaster or crisis occurs.

“I’ve got it now and it stays with my Association in western Kentucky and when God needs me, He calls me and I go. We’re happy to serve the public and share the love of the Lord with them,” McNeely said. “I’m the lead over it –where it goes, I go, and where I go, it goes, we just set up.”
He noted that while there is no charge for the laundry service to those who need it, he does accept non-monetary donations.
“If someone wants to donate detergent, dryer sheets or trash bags, things like that, we’ll accept it, but there is no money required, McNeely said. “You can bring as many loads as you need. “
He also explained that while he will at times wash and dry bedding materials, he prefers to not do so, for a simple reason.
“We try not to do bedding, because that ties up a washer and dryer for one hour, he explained.  “I will, if I have nothing else to do – if that’s all I’ve got, then I’ll do the bedding, but if I’ve go 40 loads in there, I can’t tie up all my washers with 10 loads of bedding.”
Working with McNeely were two other volunteers, one that he noted was from Jellico, Tennessee, but attended a Baptist church in Kentucky, and another who was described as being “a local” from this area.
He also said that he will stay in Albany as long as he is needed or until his state Association Director tells him it’s time to go home or until he’s needed elsewhere.
“I’m here until my state director tells me to go home,” he said. “When he tells me to leave, if I’ve still got laundry, I’ll finish it, then I’ll pack it up, hook it up and drag it home.”
Just to the south of the Disaster Services laundry trailer, also affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention, is a portable six shower facility situated in a large enclosed trailer that also houses a washer and dryer unit.
Nick Catron is the Director of Missions for the Southern Baptist Churches of Clinton, Wayne and Cumberland counties.
A Wayne County native, Catron pastored in Clinton County for 10 years at the Green Grove Baptist Church.  He currently resides near the Clinton – Cumberland County boundary near Page’s Grocery.
Catron, like McNeely, noted that the shower trailer he was supervising at the VFW Post was just a part of the outreach ministry the KBC is capable of providing in times of crisis and disaster.
“We’re the Kentucky Baptist Disaster Relief and we go out all over the United States and there are times when we may even go across the world, doing ministry in times of disaster, and this is considered a disaster,” Catron said. “We do chain saw, mud out, roof tarping, kitchens, water purification, flood recovery, CPR, evangelism in crisis, we do chaplain work, rigging, ash out if there is a major fire – we go in and try to help people sift through what’s left to maybe find some relics.”
As is the case with all of the KBC Disaster Relief services, there is no charge to the public needing the services provided, but donations are accepted.
“We’ve had donations of various kinds, we’ve had monetary donations, food brought in, we’ve had local people stop and come in and just ask what they could do and just wanting to help,” Catron said. “The VFW has been such a blessing to us, and a lot of the VFW members have volunteered their time and efforts and not only the use of their facilities, but also to help us with physical labor.”
Setting up the shower trailer at the Albany VFW Post soon after the Albany water crisis began didn’t come without incident however, but again, through the cooperation and donations of manpower, equipment and materials, the trailer was up and running a day after arriving.
“Tony Boils (Boils Construction), Tim Albertson (Albany Plumbing and Electric) and Lonnie Thrasher (Thrasher Plumbing) worked themselves to death.  It was 22 degrees below zero last week in Monticello (where the shower trailer is stored), and we got down here and our water heater was busted,” Catron said last Friday. “They worked all day Sunday down here and Tim went in and was able to get us a water heater.”
As with all of the Disaster Relief Services the KBC is able to provide, Catron noted that providing a ministry is also a part of the services.
“Everything we do is absolutely free of charge, we do it out of the love for Christ. Our goal is to take Jesus, as we go,  and then, if we get to help someone along the way, well,” Catron noted. “We try to pray with just about every person who comes through, not everybody is open to it, but a lot are.”
Vera Duvall, another volunteer with the shower service trailer and also affiliated with the Southern Baptist Churches, noted that in addition to the showers and the many cases of water that had been handed out to the public, they had also given away several Bibles to people coming to the VFW Post to use the emergency facilities.
Catron explained that not all of those volunteering to staff the laundry service were from the immediate area, noting that on this particular disaster call-out, the association had volunteers sent from Somerset, Land Between the Lakes, Jellico, Tennessee, and Wayne County, not to mention the VFW members and many local citizens who had stopped to help while the trailer was on site.
“We’ve had a lot of people come through to get water, to get showers, to get laundry done, and some have come in just to hang out and pray with us,” Catron said. “It’s really a blessing to Disaster Relief workers.”
He explained that while the services offered are a blessing to the citizens who have been afflicted by the disaster, providing the service and the fellowship gained are a blessing to those volunteering.
“A lot of people might not understand it and I understand where they are coming from when people come in and say ‘you’re such a blessing to us to come’, but they don’t understand the blessings we get out of coming and doing,” Catron said.
He said that like the adjacent laundry trailer, the shower facility has been placed into service all over the state, including sending teams to western Kentucky following the tornadoes there a few years ago, as well as working disaster relief on the far other end of the state when flooding devastated a large region of eastern Kentucky.
“For the most part, every bit of it is on our dime, we don’t charge anything for anything we do,” Catron said. “We’ve had donations of various kinds. We’ve had monetary donations, food brought in, we’ve had local people stop and come in and just ask what they could do and just wanting to help.”
Catron said that as of Friday morning, there had probably been over 100 showers taken by local citizens who were without water, and he added that he and the shower unit had been authorized by the KBC to continue to remain on site for another week, if needed.

Kentucky Baptist Convention volunteers Andy and Barry were busy Friday working through loads of laundry that had been dropped off at the Albany VFW Post 1096 where the Kentucky Disaster Relief trailer was stationed.