Help Us Rebuild: Tornado, Burglary, and a New Home in Ruins

We moved to Arkansas in October 2023, eager to start a new chapter and set roots in a promising area. On April 22, 2024, we closed on our first home together in downtown Rogers—a small fixer-upper, but the start of our dream. We poured ourselves into renovating it (sanded and refinished the old hardwood floors ourselves!), knowing that every bit of hard work was building our future.

Over Memorial Day weekend, an EF-2 tornado tore through Rogers, leaving devastation in its wake. Before we made our first mortgage payment our world was upended. The entire west side of our home was destroyed. That night, Mer faced a terrifying moment when a tree, hurled at 125 mph, crashed through our house like a spear, missing her by mere inches. It was a miracle she survived.

The destruction was overwhelming—our home, which we had just begun to make our own, was in ruins. The west side had to be stripped down for emergency repairs, and the storm left holes in the roof and damaged siding and doors.

As if that wasn’t enough, our home was burglarized last week. Despite our daily visits to monitor the property, thieves broke in and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of bicycles, outdoor gear, power tools, yard equipment, and even sentimental items of no real value.

We’ve been working diligently with FEMA, our insurance company, and the police to recover what we can and secure funds for repairs. However, many of these costs aren’t covered. There is also a major discrepancy between what insurance will help us with and how much it actually costs to rebuild and secure our home. We’re reaching out to our community to help us address urgent needs, like purchasing a new lawn mower and installing secure doors, as well as help us narrow the gap between our actual hard costs and what insurance can offer.

While we can never replace the sentimental items we lost, we hope to rebuild our lives and home to create new memories. Our goal is to raise $10,000, a modest amount compared to our total losses but a crucial step in our recovery. Any contribution you can make would be deeply appreciated.

Thank You,

The Wilders