PASADENA, Texas – Pasadena crews spent Tuesday morning clearing downed trees and debris along Elsa and Jean Street. Alongside them, down Elsa Street, is Robert Ebbecke.
Ebbecke is the owner of the Gulf Coast Tree Removal. He’s out working but isn’t getting paid.
“At first, I came over here hoping to do some business, I’m a businessman and work’s been slow,” Ebbecke said. “So, after talking with the people I found out they were kind of tight on money, so at that point, I realized it was better just to do it for them as a good deed.”
Ebbecke is working at Tonya McGrew’s home.
Her carport and portions of her porch were mangled around the Magnolia tree in her front yard.
“Truly, it looks like the tree just kind of opened up and held all of that metal,” McGrew said. “We had metal everywhere!”
The single mother said she doesn’t have home insurance.
“I have no idea how much it would cost and to be honest with you, I really don’t know,” McGrew said. “I was reaching out to people to see if anyone could come and get this metal out of this tree before it flies out with this wind and hurts somebody.”
KPRC 2′s Rilwan Balogun asked Ebbecke why he felt compelled to help.
“I’ve been having hard times before and so I know how it is to struggle,” Ebbecke said. “I’ve been homeless before. I come from the very bottom and just by the grace of God I’ve learned to stay true to my faith and do the next right thing.”
The next right thing, to him, was helping McGrew.
Ebbecke originally thought it would take half an hour to complete the job, but it ultimately took several hours because the metal was “twisted” around the tree.
“I just went up there and started cutting it out with my chainsaw and the limbs,” he said.
By noon, he was done.
“It’s a hard world out there. We need more kind people in our world,” McGrew said. “It just shows we’ve got a good man here with a good heart. That’s what we need. We need to bring that back.”
The arborist plans on returning to McGrew’s home to better trim the Magnolia limbs.