Yesterday, my childhood home was destroyed. A storm rolled through my area and dropped 3-6 inches of rain IN ONE NIGHT. A flash flood overtook the part of my parents neighborhood their house was in. When the water went down and the damage could be seen, they lost everything. My parents are very simple people. They lived in an old mobile home, and my Dad works doing pest control to support the family. My mom is disabled and my adopted brother also lives with them. I just need to know what I'm supposed to do . This situation doesn't directly affect me as I haven't lived there in years, but seeing the remnants of my early years strewn across the landscape is a shattering experience. I was wondering if any of you could give advice as to how I can help them out. I am mostly concerned about money. They have people who I'm sure will give them plenty of clothes, furnishings, etc. But they are flat broke, and don't know what thy're going to do. Does anyone have any advice about how I could raise money to help them out? Also does anyone know how I would go about setting up an online page to accept donations for them to use for re-homing? I'll post pics later, right now I'm just too tired Thanks for listening and I appreciate the sympathy and advice.
I can't help on the set up- total computer dummy! I know it's kind of silly, but being a woman, one of the things that would hit me hardest would be losing all the family photos. I would also suggest that you contact all those folks who may have old photos of your family. (you know their names- get a 24 hour subscription to one of the people finder sites like Intelius- I've found lots of folks this way) Get them to send Mom reprints of the photos. This will also alert them to the situation your parents are in and get them more help.
After you do the picture thing (DO IT!) try to get copies up online, so that if something like this ever happens again they won't be destroyed forever. Do you have room for them to stay at your place?
Storm Crow makes a real good point about family pictures. It may not be the first thing some people think of after a situation like this, but at the very least it would probably be uplifting just to have those memories back. Aren't there government assistance type of programs that can help in situations like this? I don't know if there are, but I assume there would be. Best wishes to you and your family, dude.
I am so sorry to hear of this. In 1986 I had the same thing happen to us. But we had a little warning as they had to open a dam upriver from us to keep it from busting. You ever had 2 hours to decide what you want to get out of your house? Sux! But pictures was the first thing out! As bad as I hate to say it, the government can help you. FEMA, Red Cross, and even social security can kick in situations like this. Gonna be some red tape, (cuz it is the government,) but they helped us get set back up. If the area they live in is declared a disaster area, even more help will be available. Good luck to you all. Keep us posted.
Yeah they are cureently staying with me for the time being. We managed to salvage some of the photos so that isn't too big of an issue. They are actually keeping suprisingly high spirits about the whole thing. But like I said in the OP, I'm just worried about how they are going to recover financially. This is the third straight year its flooded. The previous two were repairable, but this time there is just no hope. I do appreciate the comments and thoughts though