July 24, 2000

Texas Men feeding Throckmorton pipeline volunteers
___THROCKMORTON--Water is on everyone's mind in this town of 1,000 people northeast of Abilene.
___There's not enough falling from the sky, so a pipeline is being built to bring in more, and Texas Baptist Men are handing it out in bottles to satisfy the thirst of volunteer workers.
___The town's normal water supply is projected to last only about another 60 days. Volunteers have come to Throckmorton to help lay about 11 miles of new pipe to Elbert and to upgrade about 13 more miles of pipe in order for the drought-starved town to tap into water from Graham. Texas Baptist Men are providing meals and drinks for the pipeline workers, who are laboring under 100-degree heat to dig 40-inch-deep trenches.
___A Texas Baptist disaster relief unit from Wichita Falls rolled into Throckmorton July 16 and began serving lunch and dinner the next day, said Gene Pepiton, director of missions for Wichita-Archer-Clay Baptist Association.
___"The biggest thing our folks are learning is that water and Gatorade are two of the most important items to have," said David Odom, the relief unit's supervisor during the first few days of the effort.
___The feeding unit's eight-man crew served 64 sandwich meals for lunch the first day and 42 hot meals that evening. Numbers began to climb early Wednesday, Odom said, but totals were not available at press time.
___Texas Baptist Men, a ministry of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, coordinates the work of trained disaster relief volunteers around the state. The Wichita Falls unit is part of a 10-truck system.
___Pepiton said more pipeline workers were expected over the weekend and therefore more meals would be served.

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