Eighty-four Provo area employees from APX Alarm have been in Galveston, Texas since Thursday, cleaning up debris from Hurricane Ike and helping residents.

The employees volunteered to go to Texas -- while being paid their usual wages for their time away from work -- and were sent on buses by their company. The volunteers have provided a wide variety of services: moving household items, removing fallen trees, loading trucks with food, water and supplies and, in some cases, making cash donations.

Josh Houser, coordinator of APX relief efforts in Galveston, said he was astonished by the level of destruction he saw.

"It looks like a nuclear bomb just dropped on this place," he said, adding that most businesses in town had been closed.

One couple helped by the company's volunteers were both janitors at an area school. Because the school will be closed until January, they're going to be without jobs for several months. The volunteers cut down the couple's decayed trees, cleaned their yard and gave them $1,000. The man and woman cried and hugged the volunteers when they saw the work that had been done, said APX spokesman Tom Coleman.

The part of Galveston where the volunteers served was in water 7-13 feet deep, Coleman said. Houses, plants, electronic devices and household contents of all kinds were ruined and residents are moving everything they own out of necessity, he said.

Coleman said the people of Galveston were in a state of shock in the wake of the damage caused by Ike.

"It's utter destruction," he said.

The mold and mildew alone make entering the houses dangerous, forcing volunteers to wear masks, Coleman said.

Houser said some household items were not only ruined, but also smelly.

"If you could open that fridge, it would change your life," he said, referring to the stench of a refrigerator belonging to a family helped by the APX team.

The Provo volunteers worked with a group of about 30 workers from the American Red Cross, which provided food, water and ice to those in need, while also giving service-related instruction to the APX employees, Houser said. Houser said he saw groups offering to remove items from houses for a fee, but the 84 Provo volunteers offered removal and cutting services at no cost.

Houser's phone has been ringing continually with calls from groups such as FEMA who are looking for a helping hand, he said.

Initially, APX officials had considered sending money, but not volunteers, to aid in the Ike relief efforts. While at a meeting, they decided they would also send voluntary workers to Galveston, Houser said.

The project continued through Saturday with workers leaving Galveston this morning, likely to arrive in Utah on Monday morning. The ride to Texas took 30 hours -- eight hours more than anticipated, Houser said.

• Sam Scorup can be reached at 344-2561, or at sscorup@heraldextra.com