First came the flood. Then search and rescue. Then neighbors and friends.
And then came the Saints.
By Monday morning, the mud was still wet and gooey — thick with silt, debris, and who knows what else the flood had dragged through town. It pooled one to three feet deep in yards and parking lots, seeping into every crack and crevice, oozing from machinery, sheds, and storefronts alike.
Eileen Harbison left her house early Monday to meet her boss, Sarah Bernstein, at their boutique, Simply Sarah’s, on North Broad Street to assess the damage. Harbison didn’t know what to expect, only that she’d need a shovel—so she tossed one into the back of her car.
When she arrived, the eight-foot front gate was resting in eight inches of mud.
“I managed to clear a tiny area in front of our big gate so I could squeeze through, when two gentlemen came up and offered to help,” Harbison said. “I looked at them, I looked at the mud—and handed them my shovel.”
Pretty soon there were 20 to 30 people there with their own shovels. One of the volunteers asked if the skid steer in the yard worked. After Harbison found the key and a neighbor brought over gas, he climbed in and got to work.
“It couldn’t have been more than a few hours,” she said. “And the whole yard and parking lot in front of our shop was cleared. And then they were gone—on to the next project.”
Across town, a Miami pastor who had asked his Bible study group to help shovel out the church parking lot Monday morning began the day alone. But before long, a few volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arrived. Among them was Matthew Larkin, one of the first to join the pastor with shovel in hand. Larkin says more volunteers followed—and within the hour nearly 50 people were clearing the lot. And when they finished, they picked up their shovels and moved on to the next location. It was a scene repeated throughout Miami and Globe, where groups of volunteers could be seen working alongside residents, and others who had come to help flood victims clear mud and debris from their property and salvage what they could.
The Latter-day Saints were by no means the only help Globe-Miami received in those early days, but they were by far the single largest group.
Later that week, we spoke with members of Team Rubicon, who had been on the ground since the flood occurred, doing the same kind of work—mucking out homes, clearing debris, and helping residents salvage what they could. One volunteer put it bluntly: “The Mormons did in three days what it takes us three weeks to do.”
It’s no small thing to say there is strength in numbers. Especially when it comes to mud.
It began with a phone call
The arrival of volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint began with a phone call from a church leader in Globe to his counterpart in Mesa — the man responsible for overseeing 21 stakes across eastern Arizona, including Globe.
Preston Pollock, president of the Globe Stake, reached out to Matthew Riggs, an East Mesa church leader, shortly after the flood. Pollock described the devastation and the immediate needs he was hearing from emergency officials.
Emergency management had asked if the church could be used as a staging area, and said they could also use grab-and-go supplies such as water, sports drinks, and protein bars for first responders and volunteers. So before Riggs headed to Globe to join Pollock, he went straight to Costco, where he filled two vehicles with supplies and grab-and-go items.
At the same time, word spread through church leadership channels across the East Valley and Gila Valley, setting in motion what would become one of the largest volunteer responses the community had ever seen.
Volunteers from across the East Valley and Gila Valley began arriving in town by 7:30 a.m. and making their way to the church property, which sits across the highway and up on a hill from the Hwy 60/266 intersection. There were so many cars that the line soon stretched from the hwy intersection all the way into Globe.
And the volunteers didn’t come empty-handed.
“We hadn’t asked for donations, but people brought them anyway — everything from food and water to skid steers and tractors,” Riggs said. “One person even volunteered a helicopter.”
Larry LeSuer, stake president in Mesa, said preparedness and service are central tenets of the church. “Being in service to others — as we did in Globe-Miami — meant as much to us as it did to those we helped,” he said.
LeSuer said he wasn’t surprised by the turnout, but it was still humbling to drive up to the church and see the crowds. Volunteers checked in, received safety briefings, and were assigned to areas in need. LeSuer added,
“We were told, ‘Assemble there — you will see multiple opportunities to serve,"
And that day, opportunities abounded. From mucking out storefronts and driveways to cleaning and sorting belongings and filling dumpsters, with volunteers appearing wherever work needed to be done.
John Lewis, former mayor of Gilbert and now leader of over 26 stakes in the Gilbert, San Tan Valley, Queen Creek and West Mesa areas, said he received the call from Riggs after Pollock reached out for help.
“We were told when we arrived and got our assignments that we might go to homes where people weren’t expecting us,” Lewis said. “So we just knocked on doors and asked if our help was needed.”
In addition to the volunteers, donations poured in — so many that the church soon found itself overwhelmed with an abundance of supplies and clothing. Teams of young adults, ages 18 to 30, stepped in to organize the goods and distribute them throughout the community.
Pollock said in a statement that “The response from the more than 3,000 volunteers on Monday was tremendous. Equally impressive was the commitment and compassion we saw from our friends and neighbors throughout the community. As we shoveled side by side, I witnessed firsthand the goodness and strength of all people, regardless of religion or belief.”
For some volunteers, the experience left such a strong impression that they returned even after the work was done.
Matthew Larkin came back to Globe the following Friday with his wife, on their way to hike the Peralta Trail for their first wedding anniversary. Having admired the town’s architecture during the cleanup, he wanted her to see it for herself.
That evening, as they strolled along Broad Street, they came upon a group of women making fresh fry bread outside The Huddle as part of a local fundraiser. His wife, delighted, said she hadn’t found good fry bread since their last trip to Moab. Larkin said that simple moment became his wife’s favorite memory of the weekend, and one of his own reminders of why service connects people long after the mud is gone.
For a community still reeling from the flood, the outpouring of help brought more than relief — it brought hope. In the face of so much loss, the sight of thousands of volunteers filling the streets of Globe-Miami with shovels, gloves, and compassion became a reminder that recovery begins not with rebuilding, but with showing up for one another.
**This is one of many stories to be told here of people showing up for one another
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