
3 minute read
THE NEIGHBORLY
THE NEIGHBORLY THING TO DO
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From David Flick
When Oliver Cone, Transfiguration’s senior warden, arrived at the church that frigid Ash Wednesday, what he saw was both appalling and inspiring.
Water from a broken pipe had spread from the north transept to the nave to the gathering space, and had been creeping past the Memorial Garden toward Roper Hall.
But he also saw a group of church members and friends who had come together quickly to clear the flood, with brooms, a Wet-Vac and hours-long persistence.
“We were splashing through water a couple of inches deep,” he said. “It was scary, but in one way it was a joyous sight.”
Hours later, the volunteers succeeded in clearing the water, preventing a costly disaster. And they had once again demonstrated that Transfiguration is a church lifted by a caring community.
“For most people, it was the first time that week they had been outside their houses,” Mr. Cone said. “Hillcrest was so covered with snow you couldn’t see the sidewalks. The fact that so many people came out is really remarkable.”
Bracken Reece, director of operations, estimated the damage at $24,000, mostly to drywall. But had it not been caught in time, the damage would have been much worse.
“Had the water risen much higher,” he said, “we could have lost all the pews, it could have damaged the organ. The route it was going, the water could have rolled down into church offices.”
If John Selzer, a neighbor, had not been fighting cabin fever, the problem might not have been caught as soon as it was.
“After several days of frigid weather, I felt pent up and had to get out,” he said. “I couldn’t convince my wife or son to come with me, so I put on my ski jacket and ski pants, and headed out.”
As he walked nearer the Transfiguration campus, he heard a fire alarm triggered by a burst pipe in the north transept ceiling.
”I thought, ‘certainly they know about this’ and started to walk away,” he said. “I got about 20 feet, and then I thought, ‘maybe they don’t’.”
He texted his wife, Elizabeth. Although the Selzers were not members of Transfiguration, they knew that a neighbor, Jordan Teeple, was a parishioner.
Elizabeth texted Mrs. Teeple, who then alerted Father Casey.
Soon the rector, joined by Bracken Reece and Oliver Cone, were on the scene. Mr. Reece called an electrician, who shut down the alarm and cut off the water sprinkler. The Teeples and the Selzers arrived, accompanied by their children.
Five-year-old Ruthie Teeple manned a broom bigger than herself, and some of the other kids made a game of clearing the water.
“They thought it was kind of fun,” Mrs. Teeple said. “You couldn’t get the push brooms away from them. They were kind of racing down the aisle to see who could push the water down the drain the fastest.”
By early evening, the water had been cleared, and blowers were put in place to dry the space.
With more and more folks filling the pews on Saturdays and Sundays, it is incredible how little evidence there is of the disaster that might have occured.
That the damage was as small as it was is a tribute to luck, quick thinking on the part of church officials, and a community that helped when it was most needed.
“To us it was no big deal,” Mr. Selzer said. “It was just a kind of neighborly thing to do. It felt good to be useful.”