Hickory residents donating water to W. Virginia families

HICKORY, N.C. — Volunteers in Hickory loaded a truck Thursday morning with thousands of gallons of water for families in West Virginia.

The bottled water filled up an office at one of the collection points at EZ Way Auto on Highway 321.

Jennifer Rhodes, who is originally from West Virginia, came up with the idea after watching news coverage last weekend of the chemical spill in the New River. Since then, dozens of people across the Hickory area have donated water for those families who have not been able to use water at their homes this week.

"I was sitting there watching it and I started crying and my daughter said, 'What do you want to do about it?' And my daughter said, 'Let's call some people and see if we can't collect some stuff.' I put a plea out on Facebook and people started calling and it kind of blew up," said Rhodes.

Coca-Cola bottling company donated a big rig to take the water to a volunteer fire department in Glasgow, West Virginia, where it will be distributed Friday.

WSOC