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LUBBOCK, Texas — These cold conditions can be especially troubling for our homebound and elderly neighbors. With Meals on Wheels providing meals and other essential check-ins for those folks, they reached out to the community to help them out during this time – the response was incredible.

“With us coming off of a weekend where we weren’t able to deliver and then Monday and Tuesday where we weren’t able to get here, that makes us really concerned about their safety,” said Lisa Gilliland, Executive Director at Lubbock Meals on Wheels. 

In these unprecedented conditions, looking after our homebound neighbors is more important now than ever before. To continue with their services, Meals on Wheels asked for folks with four-wheel-drive vehicles to help deliver this week. Thankfully, well over 100 reached out. 

“It was great to be able to put out the call for action and for so many people to respond,” said Gilliland. “We have so many people that we’ll be able to have another group of people come in tomorrow and do the same thing.”

On top of the lack of interaction for our older folks in this pandemic, below-freezing temperatures raise even more concerns related to heat, plumbing, health and access to food.

“It’s just so easy for an elderly person to fall and not get access to a phone and that just might be the last thing they ever do, and we would hate for that to be the case,” said volunteer Tom Baker.

Read the full article on everythinglubbock.com, published February 17, 2021.

LUBBOCK, Texas — Many Texas counties, like Abilene and San Angelo, have not had access to water throughout this cold weather, but Lubbock’s water department is working hard to make sure it keeps flowing to your homes even if the power goes out.

“We have both the power grid and the emergency generator capacity to make sure that we keep water flowing into your homes,” said Aubrey Spear, Director of Lubbock Water Utilities.

The city has switched to backup generators, which run on diesel, to ensure that even if the power goes out, the city would still have running water. When there were reports of possible blackouts, they took steps to make sure what happened to other Texas counties did not happen to them.

“We went ahead and proactively took most all of our water treatment and wastewater treatment plants and pump stations off the power grid,” said Spear.

Read the full article on everythinglubbock.com, published February 16, 2021.

LUBBOCK, Texas — Texas Parks and Wildlife are asking the public to help them track bats sick with a disease called white-nose syndrome.

It’s caused by a fungus that originated in the northeast and is now spreading to Texas. White-nose syndrome has already been found in 18 Texas counties – even Childress.

Parks and Wildlife have asked the public to report any bats acting oddly during the day time or appearing to be dead on the ground.

Fortunately, the disease cannot spread to humans, but bats can carry several viruses, so it is important that if you see a bat acting odd–you do not touch it, you report it to animal control and email wns@tpwd.texas.gov.

“As this pathogen is moving west, we need to know we need to get a better idea what species are susceptible,” said Richard Stevens, Bat Specialist and Professor of Natural Resources Management at Texas Tech.

During cold weather, white-nose syndrome is likely to spread even more.

Read the full article on everythinglubbock.com, published February 11, 2021.