Hiway 80 Rescue Mission offers free bottled water, needs help restocking

LONGVIEW, Texas (KLTV) - With East Texas summer heat already upon us, and temperatures already in the 90s, the threat of dehydration and heat stroke becomes possible.

And an East Texas homeless shelter is sending the message out where people can get water.

In Longview, the Hiway 80 Rescue Mission is urging those who are homeless or transient to come into their shelter and get bottled water.

“Being on the street it’s just getting hot out there so it doesn’t take long to become dehydrated,” says mission director of development Amelia Heatherly.

Each summer the shelter is a haven for those trying to get out of the heat, and workers say they are already housing over capacity at the men’s and women’s shelters, often sleeping people wherever they can.

“We are very filled at both of our campuses here in Longview. We are sleeping people on the floor as well. We’re serving 150 people at our men’s shelter, and 80 to 90 at our women’s shelter,” Amelia says.

But the problem is volume. Currently, 55 cases of bottled water are all the mission has. It’s going to go fast.

“Those 55 cases will be gone within a matter of days. We are in dire need of bottled water,” Heatherly says.

And some who live on the street know only too well what the heat can do to them.

“I drink a lot of water. I drink sodas I find in the trash. Water I find in the trash. Do what I can do. I’ve had a heat stroke,” says one men’s shelter resident.

Regardless whether those people decide to stay in the shelter, they want them to stay hydrated.

“If they don’t want to stay, they can at least come in and get some water,” says Amelia.

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