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Steven Still is in the kitchen making “chili mac” using turkey meatballs that need to be used or discarded. Others around him pour chicken and dumplings from cans to pans for Still to season.

“What we do is pretty simple, but I have a passion for flavor so I try to make sure things taste good — and not just 'put together,’” said Still, a veteran Greensboro Salvation Army disaster volunteer and head of the nonprofit’s maintenance department. He prepared food in the Houston kitchen connected by an extension cord to power coming from the mobile Salvation Army kitchen outdoors. “I’ve learned over time how to do this.”

Still is one of three volunteers deployed in a mobile canteen from Greensboro on Sept. 12 to the Houston area in the days before Hurricane Ike was projected to make landfall near Galveston. Travis Roberts and Kenneth Brown, volunteers and employees with the Salvation Army, traveled with him. On Friday, their street team, with a half-dozen volunteers, were still feeding three apartment complexes and were down to one nursing home.

“We’ve done quite a few hurricanes and I haven’t seen the number of people we’re serving,” said Brown, on a quick trip back to the kitchen to restock before moving on to another site. “Most of the time we’ve been set up in rural areas. This is the first time I’ve seen this mass of crowd coming, just hundreds at a time.”

Around them Ike’s ravage bought death and destruction, while leaving 8 million people in Galveston and the vicinity of Houston without electricity.

Hundreds of those people, who are getting back gas and running water daily, still rely on the mobile canteen parked on Irvington Boulevard in northwest Houston on the outskirts of downtown with a lot of low-income housing nearby.

“Some of them were starting to feel neglected,” said Capt. Roman Leal, a local Salvation Army officer. “When we showed up they felt like 'Hey, we weren’t forgotten.’ This wouldn’t have been possible without Steve and Travis and Ken coming down to help us. I can tell you that the people we are serving are grateful.”

Around them, the streets are lined with tree debris where people have cleaned up yards.

“The roads are about wide enough for a single vehicle,” Still said. “Power is coming on all around, but according to the grid, we’re not supposed to get power until next week.”

The convoy of utility company vehicles from neighboring states has helped shave the number of people without power to 1 million. But people are growing frustrated, and it’s understandable, he said.

The stark reality for many is that even with the power on, the food has gone bad, and there’s no gas to put in the car. The Salvation Army office there got power late Friday.

“We do a drive-around at night to find out where the dark patches are, where the lights are out, so we can pay attention to those,” Still said. “When (the captain) was out the other night checking out these apartment complexes, people actually flagged him down and told him they would eat a rock if he had it.”

Even those like Still, there to help, face some of the same conditions.

“Sometimes that means cold showers in the dark, sometimes that means bird baths out of a gallon jug of water,” Still said of the living conditions there.

“We were blessed with a motel room the night before last. We’ve slept on benches, the sidewalk outside, a gym with running water and one without.”

This is Still’s 12th deployment — he has video of his children sleeping on the floor of the canteen during Hurricane Floyd — but it’s one of the worst. He said he hopes people find it in their hearts to help.

Thinking of the encouragement and “I love yous” from daughters Caitlynn and Sami and son Michael when they can get through on his cell phone bring tears to his eyes.

“They know that Daddy’s here helping and that’s what they want to do,” said Still, whose wife, Barbara, also wants to deploy. “People are doing what they can, but this is a massive undertaking. It’s like Katrina without a levee breaking.”

Contact Nancy H. McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com