Ramonans Share Gasoline to Help Young Boy on Dialysis

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Ramonans Share Gasoline to Help Young Boy on Dialysis
A family in urgent need helps a grocery store. Another family, in turn, helps them. It's one more story of generosity during Thursday's power outage.
By Julie Pendray Email the author 2:11pm  Print&nbps;1 Comment

When the regional power outage knocked out electricity to 1.4 million SDG&E customers Thursday night, authorities warned people not to drive unless they had to because gasoline would be scarce. Pumps at gas stations require electricity to operate.

Not only that, but without street lights in some areas, navigating in the dark might have been dangerous, warned California Highway Patrol spokesman Brian Pennings.

"We're seeing lots of accidents," he told Patch Thursday night.

Yet people had to commute home from work.

And for others, travel was urgent.

Among those people were the Houck family of Ramona, whose son Liam, born March 2010, has been on dialysis awaiting a kidney transplant.

The Houcks left Ramona on Thursday night, their friend Robert Bradley, of Ramona Family Naturals, told Patch. They had to make sure they had electricity for the dialysis machine. Vanessa and Reid Houck, a military couple, drove up to the University of California, Los Angeles area where, Bradley said, Liam is due to have his transplant.

Vanessa Houck recently told Patch that the family hopes Liam can have his transplant around Christmas time. Liam has been diagnosed with a rare disorder called Prune Belly Syndrome, which causes differences in abdominal development.

Bradley and his wife, Victoria, are among several Ramonans helping raise money for Liam's transplant.

Before leaving town, the Houcks reciprocated by dropping off a generator to keep frozen food in good shape at the Bradleys' store during the outage.

However, before they left town for the long journey, there was just one hitch—having enough gasoline, when gas stations weren't operating.

Jeff and Becky Brewer of Ramona stepped up to the plate, Bradley said.

"Be Wise Ranch also heard about it and were ready to help," he said. The ranch provides the store with locally grown fruit and vegetables.

We're awaiting word from the Houcks to see how everything is going.

http://ramona.patch.com/articles/ramonans-share-gasoline-to-help-young-boy-on-dialysis