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Wilmette and Kenilworth police officers are reaching out to compatriots in a flood-ravaged Texas city, sending them dry police gear desperately needed by officers who have spent the last week working in sodden conditions caused by Hurricane Harvey.

Officers in Friendswood, Texas, a city of roughly 40,000 people on the outskirts of Houston, will be happy to get the boots, shoes, socks, tactical pants and other items heading their way, a spokeswoman for the city police department said Friday.

“Our officers have been working nonstop — some of them were wading in water up to their chests at times — and their boots and everything else get soaked, with no chance for anything to dry out before they have to go back out,” Officer Lisa Price said Sept. 1. “Getting dry gear will be great.”

Wilmette Police Chief Kyle Murphy said Friday that Wilmette Officers John Falk, Connor Cavanagh and James Pasquesi organized the department collection after seeing a plea for donations in a law enforcement publication.

“Some of these things are specific to law enforcement,” Murphy said. “These people aren’t even asking for new items, so we’re going to see what our guys can part with.”

Officers without access to dry clothing, especially footwear, could risk health problems like trench foot, Cavanagh said Aug. 31.

“Anything we can do to help, we’ll do,” Cavanagh said.

Murphy and Cavanagh said officers also will donate gift cards to help their Texas counterparts, many of who lost homes and belongings to flooding while they worked.

In Kenilworth, Officer Earl Tuckman organized a similar collection effort after seeing a plea on the lawofficer.com website, Chief David Miller said Friday.

The website publicized both the Friendswood equipment request and a call from the Houston Police Officers’ Union for monetary donations to help flood-affected officers.

“We’ve got a bunch of boots and some fatigue pants and other equipment that our guys have accumulated,” Miller said.

Both departments hope to box up and mail the goods and gift cards either over the Labor Day weekend or early next week, Murphy and Miller said.

Price said the wife of one of Friendswood’s 60 sworn officers put out the call to numerous law enforcement publications.

“She was at home, inundated with water, and started making calls to everyone she could think of,” Price said.

Price said waters are beginning to recede, and officers finally got a break from working shifts of 12 hours or longer, sleeping at the department. That allowed everyone to check their own homes, but it didn’t necessarily provide them with relief, since many of those properties were also hit with flooding, she said.

“We’re starting the recovery process, but we had 3,000 homes inundated in our city alone. A couple of our officers have lost everything,” Price said.

Murphy said the Wilmette department can’t take donations from residents, and urged people wanting to help to check with any of the many aid groups on the ground in Texas.

“I credit our young officers for taking the initiative on this,” he said. “I can only imagine what they’re going through down there. If we had to deal with a really bad storm or weather event, or even if there’s flooding, we can finish our shift and … put our items out to dry for the next shift. These officers in the Houston area don’t have that luxury.”

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Price thanked other departments who have stepped in to help, saying, “Just knowing they’re thinking about us is wonderful.”

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Twitter @pioneer_kathy