CoolSys Foreman Steps Up to Help During Winter Disaster
March 26, 2021
Houston, Texas, is known for its extreme semi-tropical weather — hurricanes, floods, heat and withering humidity. But the city got sucker-punched by Mother Nature the week of February 14, 2021, with a record-shattering winter storm that left millions of residents without power and/or water for up to a week amidst temperatures in the teens.
Fortunately, Houston is also known for selfless acts of kindness in the aftermath of natural disasters. Everyday heroes immediately stepped in to help those affected by the freak winter storm — and one of those heroes was our own Reynaldo Charles, a CoolSys installation foreman.
A Liquid Dilemma
On Wednesday, February 17, as a second round of storms paralyzed the city with a glaze of ice, Rey got an urgent text from Sandy Resler, his longtime friend and lead installation coordinator in the CoolSys construction department. Sandy and her husband, Awn, had lost power early on, and it was out for a total of 19 hours. On Tuesday evening, Sandy says, they heard “an awful noise, very scary. My husband went into the garage and saw water pouring like crazy.”
A pipe had burst, and water was flooding into the Reslers’ dining room. Fortunately, Awn was able to turn off the water supply to the house before too much damage was done. But the Reslers were left with a dilemma: Plumbers were impossible to reach at that time. A co-worker suggested Rey. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of him sooner!” Sandy recalls.
To the Rescue
Rey’s reaction to Sandy’s text for help was immediate. “This was a crisis nobody was expecting,” he says. “Why not help somebody who needs help?” Rey’s home had escaped the worst of the storm, losing power for only four hours, so as soon as it was relatively safe to make the 40-minute drive on icy roads to Sandy’s house, Rey headed out.
Although he doesn’t consider himself an expert plumber, Rey’s job experience provided the basic skills he needed to fix the Reslers’ burst pipe. “He was a godsend,” Sandy says. “This was something so above and beyond what you’d expect someone to do. We appreciate him more than he could ever know.”
A Golden-Hearted Hero
In true hero fashion, Rey continued to come to the rescue of others after the storm, helping a couple of other people with burst pipes and even opening his family’s home to close friends and family members who were without power — while walking the tightrope of Covid restrictions.
Rey’s reaction to Sandy’s appreciation for his help was exactly what you’d expect from an everyday hero: “You’re family, Sandy,” he told her. “And family helps out family.”