Help a Retired NYPD family recover from Debby
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- UPDATE! Thank you all from the absolute bottom of my heart, you’ve made us all cry repeatedly with the support you’ve shown not just with funds on here or elsewhere, but with love and food and labor. Thank you thank you thank you. We’ve made a lot of progress being here every day and applied for a FEMA loan. We are getting there day by day but this is still a huge financial hit we were not ready for with my dad’s health issues from 9-11. Thank you again for any past and continued support, we feel so lucky.
- Hi! My name is Kristin Kelly, I am raising funds to repair my home flooded in Hurricane Debby. We are located in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, and all funds will go to home repair and replacing furniture/appliances. Thank you
- On the morning of Monday, August 5th, my family expected the typical consequences of a Florida tropical storm; mild rain and wind for a couple of days, then back to normal. We were heartbreakingly wrong. I left for work at 8:40 AM and there was no water in the roads at all. At 10:52 AM, my brother FaceTimed me and showed me our front yard. Honestly, yard is a kind word for it; it was a river. The water was just about to touch the door and they were worried. At 12:06 PM, my mom called me and said she’s standing in the living room in 5 inches of water. I did what I could from there but couldn’t get out of work until 1 PM. By the time I left work, I couldn’t get past two traffic lights before it was too deep for me to confidently decide to drive through, considering the other 2 cars were presumably ruined by that point. I parked and called my mom to ask her what to do and she said her friends were coming to pick me up in their truck. During the time we were trying to get to them, my family was evacuated by the Manatee County Fire Department in huge trucks, which was recorded in local news footage and is attached on this page. They were dropped at the front of our neighborhood and walked 1.3 miles through knee-high water in pouring rain, carrying two little dogs and walking two big dogs, to the nearby middle school to take cover. Once we were finally able to get to them in our friend’s pickup truck, it was 3:11 PM and all 7 of them were soaked and clearly exhausted. The next day, we got a chance to go to the house and see the damages: 4 feet of all drywall in our house ruined, appliances flooded and inoperative, 90% of our furniture, all of our rugs, warped kitchen cabinets, a garage trashed by the water rushing into it (knocked 2 very large freezers on their side and one went through the wall), and most of our belongings completely unusable. We aren’t in a flood zone, so we have absolutely no flood insurance. My parents were partners in the NYPD —cutest story ever, I know. While my mom was on maternity leave with my brother in 2001, my dad was a first responder in the NYPD during the 9/11 attack and has suffered from many life-threatening and severely crippling health issues due to his actions in that rubble. Two years ago, he had a massive tumor removed from his brain as well as his hypothalamus and most of his pituitary gland. We said goodbye to him 3 times, he was in and out of comas and complete confusion for months. But we got him back; unfortunately, he suffers exponentially every single day and is not the dad I knew before (although he’ll always be his little girl’s hero). Watching that news clip and hearing what he said about this being worse than brain surgery absolutely broke my heart. With his surgery, the ICU, rehabilitation, and all other medical costs - bills got incredibly tight. We are not a family who asks for help ever and we’ve never been a family who accepts money, but life has thrown us so many curveballs and they’ve finally caught up to us financially. A friend even had to beg us to make one of these, that’s why it’s a week late. The total for the repairs of our home is estimating $77,000 right now, a completely impossible number. If you feel compelled, my family would be incommunicably grateful. If you don’t feel comfortable donating through GoFundMe, we have a Cashapp: @kristin1671, a Venmo: @kristinkelly16, and also a Zelle shown in a QR code below. If no one does, we know God and his plan for us will ALWAYS prevail and lead us to happiness. Thank you for reading and thank you in advance for any support.
Organizer
Kristin Kelly
Organizer
Bradenton, FL