However, there is another factor​—their attitude. The same report continued: “There’s no bureaucracy. There are no battling egos. Instead, workers seem impossibly cheerful and cooperative no matter how hot, grimy or exhausted.” How was that explained? One Witness answered: “This comes from a relationship with God that motivates us to demonstrate our love for others.” That was something else that Andrew could not take away, the Witnesses’ Christian love.​—John 13:34, 35.

A volunteer there reports: “So we received a whole truckload of drinking water. We immediately included this among the other foodstuffs that we were sending to the distribution centers at the Kingdom Halls. It was shared with the brothers and with the neighbors in that area who were in need.” A paper company in Washington State donated 250,000 paper plates.

In the beginning, city authorities were sending non-Witness volunteers to the Kingdom Halls, saying, ‘They are the only ones who are properly organized.’ Eventually the military moved in and began to set up food and water relief centers and tent cities.

The original Witness staging area was set up by the relief committee at the Fort Lauderdale Assembly Hall, which is some 40 miles [60 km] north of the main disaster zone around Homestead. To relieve some of the pressure, a primary staging area was established at the Plant City Assembly Hall near Orlando, about 250 miles [400 km] northwest of the disaster zone. Most relief materials were channeled there for sorting and packing. The committee ordered its needs from Plant City on a daily basis, and huge tractor-trailers were used to cover the five-hour drive down to Fort Lauderdale.

In turn this staging station supplied food, materials, water, generators, and other needs to three Kingdom Halls that had been repaired in the center of the disaster area. There, capable Witnesses organized building and clean-up crews to visit the hundreds of homes that needed attention. Kitchens and feeding lines were also opened on the Kingdom Hall grounds, and anybody was welcome to come for aid. Even some of the soldiers enjoyed a meal and were later observed dropping donations into the contribution boxes.

While the men were busy fixing houses, some of the women were preparing meals. Others were out visiting any people they could find in order to share with them the Bible’s explanation of natural disasters and also to give away boxes of relief supplies to those in need.