FLINT, MI -- An old school once part of the St. Agnes Catholic Church in Flint is filled with abandoned cases of donated bottled water.

Flint resident Jimmy Cowell wandered into the structure with his fiancé and said he stumbled upon “hundreds of cases of bottled water.”

“We were pretty dumbfounded that anyone could leave that much water behind that this city truly relied on,” Cowell said. “If anyone wants to know where Flint donations went, it’s just sitting in abandoned buildings in stockpiles... This is probably a 30-by-50 room full of water.”

Fundraisers have been held at St. Agnes Catholic Church since the Flint Water Crisis started in 2015 and the old school behind the church was used to store donated bottles of water.

In 2016, a water drive was hosted at St. Agnes Catholic Church on West Pierson Road through donations from the Grand Rapids Latino community. The water from that drive was cleared out by the Genesee County Hispanic Latino Collaborative, CEO San Juana Olivares said.

“Those bottles of water weren’t left by our community,” Olivares said. “We took all that water out that same year. Our community helped make sure it was taken out and given to residents.”

Roberto Torres, who helped facilitate the donations along with two Latino radio stations in Grand Rapids, said his community was just answering Flint’s call for clean water. The radio stations made a call out to the community and residents began dropping off donations at the stations.

Those donations were loaded onto two trucks and delivered to Flint, where volunteers from Grand Rapids and Flint passed bottled water out to residents.

“We were looking to serve the Flint community,” Torres said. “We just unloaded the two trucks at the church, we just delivered the water.”

Torres said he doesn’t know who helped organize the event on Flint’s end and that he’s not sure if the water in the building now is the water that was donated in Grand Rapids.

“Families were taking a lot of water while we there passing it out, so it could have been another delivery of water that wasn’t ours,” Torres said. “Isn’t there someone in general coordinating all of these donations?”

Bottled water was distributed by the city of Flint using “water pods” funded by the State. Those pods required residents to show identification proving their Flint residency in order to receive water. The city’s water distribution sites were shut down last year in April.

Churches throughout Flint have taken it upon themselves to accept and distribute donated bottled water. Part of the reason Torres’ community rallied together at St. Agnes was it didn’t require residents to show identification in order to receive bottled water.

“People were asked to show identification, we didn’t feel that was necessary,” Torres said.

St. Agnes closed its doors in 2008 after struggling financially and having low attendance, MLive-The Flint Journal previously reported. The Catholic church was absorbed by St. John Vianney Catholic Church and sold in 2008, St. John’s Pastor Tom Eckert said.

Genesee County Property records show Reginald Williams of Flint as the owner of the property.

City utility records state utilities are billed to God’s City of Refuge of Flint LLC. State records show Patricia C. Williams as the registered owner of the LLC.

Attempts to reach Patricia Williams and Reginald Williams failed as all phone numbers associated with them or God’s City of Refuge on public records were out of service.

Torres, who participates in donation drives often, said this kind of thing happens. Torres helped organize a drive for victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and encountered issues with getting the goods delivered.

“We received a lot of donations. The first shipment that went out didn’t make it past the port,” Torres said. “Once it got to the port and was unloaded, people took it with them. It never reached its destination and we had to do another shipment of donations.”

While problems getting donations to the people who need them can arise, Torres said it shouldn’t stop people from trying to help others out.

“You don’t let that discourage you from giving and donating,” Torres said.