John & Penny Defino

Our dear friends John & Penny Defino have basically lost 90% of their personal effects and have months of rehabilitation ahead of them. Please consider assisting their journey. In John's words:

"So many have reached out and asked how we are doing. Let me say that we are safe, but essentially homeless for now. When we bought our home we were excited to purchase a home that was over 60 years old and never saw a drop of water. So, we did not have flood insurance. Flood insurance here would have been about 4,000 a year with a 10,000 deductible. In Ian, we had between 38 and 45 inches of water in the house depending on the room. We lost all our furniture, appliances, cabinets and most of our personal items. We saved some clothes. You will see in the pictures that we are hanging them to dry. We lost many of our palms. We were very fortunate that our great friends Dave David Arenz and Laurett Ellsworth Arenz have given use refuge in their home until we can make at least one room livable. In addition so many other friends have offered us housing and assistance. We are very grateful. We spend our day working on the house and nights at Dave and Laurett's. Neither have power so we haul our little generator between houses. In any case, we will be "off the grid" for a bit so if you don't hear from us we are busy getting rid of standing water, mud, and molding furnishings. Thanks all for checking in and being so kind. I'll post a few pictures of what we are dealing with but I'm afraid they do not show the full impact" - John & Penny