We need help in a bad way, after a national disaster !
We are hard working people and thought after 35 years on the Job,had this life thing nailed down, but then the unexspected happened, June 8th 2008 woke up at 7am to our police scanner going off hearing our local fire dept talking about how they needed to evacuate people from their homes, then we heard someone knocking at our door, so I stepped out of bed and when my feet hit the floor at that very moment I knew there was a problem,our carpet was soaked and when I opened the front door I could then see our yard was covered in about 2 foot of water, the fireman told me we had to go, quickly that we had 13 " of rain In 6 hours and the levys had broke and the entire area was at risk, I told them I would get dressed and grab a few things and our cocker spaniel and he then told me you have no time for that and your pet cannot go, I refused to leave without our baby, she was our child in a sense, in fact in many ways, so I stayed and continued to do as needed, and then was able to leave when I walked out carrying our little dog in my arms the water had rose to about 4 and half feet , and rising quickly, before it was all over we had over 6 foot of water inside our home, I had never been so devastated in my life, 35 years of hard and long hours gone in a flash, and it has not ended yet we have hired several guys claiming they were contractors only to get ripped off and faulty work, we have replaced every single piiece of drywall in the entire house,all the electrical, we had new floors put in and now the kitchen floor is swelling and we are at a lost, we were told by our local flood coucil that we would get help from the amish but that never happened, all we have gotten is promise;s and faulty work, we have spent close to 30,000 in material from lowes and even our carpet and floors, but they tell us they cannot do anything, so we continue to go through this nightmare, living everyday looking at bare green drywall, and living in a construction zone,and we pray daily that someone would come our rescue,I have wrote Opra,Dr.Phill,Ellen,And have heard nothing,I have wrote Mike Holmes, did receive a letter back from him telling us they only do work in canada, we live in a small town in Indiana and no movie stars or celebritys have come or offerred any help, your welcome to look at the devastation on you tube just type in flood martinsville,In , this devastation affected 9 countys. please we our at a point of begging for help. Thank you and God Bless !
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Pamela thank you for your sweet words, really had no Ideal I was doing that, just felt Maybe just maybe somebody would hear our cry for help, thank you again. Thank you for all of your thoughtful comments, and your Prayers, We as well hope and pray that blessing come your way as well, God Bless
Here is a page where you can see what kind of assistance you might be eligible for:
http://www.disasterassistance.gov/disaster-assistance
And from FEMA:
Do I Qualify for "Housing Needs" Assistance?
Main Content
To receive money or help for "Housing Needs" that are the result of a disaster, all of the following must be true:
You have losses in an area that has been declared a disaster by the President.
You have filed for insurance benefits and the damage to your property is not covered by your insurance or your insurance settlement is insufficient to meet your losses.
You or someone who lives with you is a citizen of the United States, a non-citizen national, or a qualified alien.
You have a valid Social Security Number.
The home in the disaster area is where you usually live and where you were living at the time of the disaster.
You are not able to live in your home now, you cannot get to your home due to the disaster, or your home requires repairs because of damage from the disaster.
http://www.fema.gov/do-i-qualify-housing-needs-assistance
Good luck.
Committees should be formed:
1) Assess damage: A committee should access the IMMEDIATE NEEDS of every family and not just a list of what must be done or what people want done but what are the most pressing needs. If there is no one that can do this, see if you can get someone retired, or a group of retired ones would be better, to help out and share their knowledge and help on this committee and assignments.There should be one room in the house that is liveable for each family. Roof damage and windows come first so that when it rains it doesn't destroy any work in progress.
2) Assess local skills. Organize training. Assess what skills are available in the neighborhood. If anyone has any construction skills at all, they should be training others to do what they know how to do. Set up training committees. The person training should not be the one doing the work. Their only job is to train so that there are enough people to get the work done.
3) Assess ways of getting help where local help is insufficient. An organization of retired civil engineers might be willing to help. An organization of retired architectural engineers might be willing to help train some construction skills. Send out a call for retired construction workers, not to do the work, but to train others on a volunteer basis.. Contact the governor and request a personal meeting. Select at least two persons in the neighborhood that would be qualified to do this who can explain in detail the needs assessed by committees and find out what assistance could be received by any state and federal assistance programs and how to obtain this. Get any paperwork necessary to obtain assistance before leaving the governors office so it can be filled out by this committee immediately. They should also be responsible to follow up on this and be the movers and shakers to get it going.
4) Asses immediate NEEDS of food, clothing and shelter.
5) Make assignments for all who want to be included in the co-op. First considerations. Every family must have minimal food and clothing and blankets. Someone can be assigned to look for clothing at thrift stores or to make door to door solicitations in neighboring areas that were not affected by the flood. Money jars in stores explaining the needs--as far out from the neighborhood as is needed. People assigned to do things like this could be some that can't be trained or are too old to do simple construction and cleanup. They must be people of integrity.
6) People that can not do construction of any sort or clean up can be assigned to other committees that check references of people who say they are builders from the Better Business Bureau, and that states offices for licensing of builders. Ask the state to set up a web page that lists builders who have scammed. Report them to the insurance companies. Report them to the state office of Consumer Affairs. Report them to the police and the Attorney General's office so these people can be brought to justice and not be allowed to hurt others. Keep lists of these people that can be accessed by your neighborhood so that they will not be 'rehired'. All information should be provided to the people on the committee so they can do their job and get the help they need also on their own homes. Find out what the monetary limit is to sue in small claims court for your state. Also, check for the statute of limitations involved. It should be handled quickly. This committee can help handle forms for small claims courts. It doesn't cost much to do this. This committee should make a distributable list of how to hire a competent contractor. some states have standard wording that contractors must provide in contracts. Some put limitations on how much money can be paid up front on a contract for work being done. 1) Demand no less than three references 2) Demand license # (if required by the state), 3) Check the references--actually go to the job and talk to the homeowners. 4) Demand a copy of their certificate of insurance. 5) Demand a contract and check it out to make sure it is in compliance with the state's rules. This should be done before anyone is hired to do anything.
7) Another committee should be organized to feed the workers. See if a school or armory or American Legion kitchen would be willing to donate on the weekends and during the week to supply food at a central place. See if a local grocery store would be willing to provide plates, paper cups, plastic silverware for free to help the effort. Make healthy cheap meals. This could be done through a local volunteer food kitchen--by supplying them with help, or a local volunteer food kitchen (like the Salvation Army) may be able to give you resources where cheap food can be purchased) and help set up menus. Everyone should pay for their meals based on a sliding income guide so that more food can be purchased. Make sure there is also assigned a clean up committee. If the place is left unclean help will be more reluctant to be offered. Everyone must have a job. Organize jobs in areas so that if workers are too far away, someone can truck brown bag food to them instead of pulling them away from the job. Local schools might be willing to offer a small school bus for this purpose if necessary.
8) A committee should be assigned to decide what areas for houses need work done first and what part of the job should or can be done first depending on training that is received and available help.
I hope this is helpful. My heart goes out to you and your neighbors. Best wishes to you all.