Smith County officials receive, distribute water flown in on military planes

SMITH COUNTY, Texas (KETK) – Smith County officials received and will distribute water that was delivered by military planes sent by the State of Texas.

Several government agencies, including cities, counties and school districts, as well as nonprofit and other various organizations throughout the region, requested water from the state after the winter storm.

So far water has been distributed to the following agencies and organizations:

• Counties – Henderson, Cherokee, Van Zandt, Wood and Rusk
• Cities – Eustace, Athens, Mineola, Wills Point, Palestine and Grand Saline
• Independent School Districts – Tyler, Athens, Eustace, Fruitvale, Wills Point, Whitehouse and Jacksonville
• Northeast Texas Public Health District, Red Cross, Troup Fire Department, Whitehouse Police Department, Camp V in Tyler, Highway 80 Rescue Mission in Tyler, Refuge of Light in Tyler, St. Peter Claver Catholic Church in Tyler, Rose Valley Apartments in Tyler, Cornerstone, HOPE in Jacksonville.

The first C-130 flown by the Texas Air National Guard, delivered 14 pallets of water on Sunday, Feb. 21.

On Monday and Tuesday, 14 pallets were delivered.

On Wednesday, 20 pallets of meals ready-to-eat were delivered.

On Thursday, two planes came in to the Tyler Pounds Regional Airport, each bringing 14 pallets. The MRE’s that were delivered the day before were loaded back onto one of the planes to be delivered to another region.

Each time the planes brought more supplies, road and bridge crews were helped by Tyler airport personnel to load the water and food in their Road and Bridge haul trucks.

Some of the agencies picked up the pallets of water they needed, while others were delivered by the Texas National Guard.