Kathy and Liz Flood Relief Fund

Julie Fronzuto is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Kathy Craig and Liz Faletti.

Imagine you are on vacation almost 2,000 miles from home and get a phone call that your home had been devastated by a natural disaster! This happened to my friends and I am starting this fundraiser to help them save their home.

While on vacation, on December 27th, 2022, my friends Liz and Kathy received a call from their next-door neighbor saying that their neighborhood was flooding and saltwater had entered their home. This was a result of a king tide, wind, snow melt, rain, and an unusually low barometric pressure. A perfect storm scenario! This caused the Swinomish Channel, located 250’ from their house, to overflow and flood the town and their neighborhood. There are two homes that are still uninhabitable as of today. Theirs is one of them.

They immediately drove back, covering 1,800 miles in 36 hours. They were fortunate to have friends near where they were vacationing who took over care of their 3 dogs and 2 cats. They had gotten 2 feet of saltwater inside their house and workshop. They lost 70% of their personal belongings, most power tools, and all of their appliances, including the water heater. They lost electricity to 1/2 the house and have no running water because of busted pipes. The floors are now warped and most of the furniture was saltwater damaged and had to be discarded.

They spent the next 12 days cleaning and rinsing the saltwater off what belongings they could salvage (thanks to the neighbor’s hose). They had had recently finished a remodel and had to tear out newly installed knotty pine and sheetrock to remove wet insulation so the walls could dry out. The town brought in commercial dumpsters and they ran 15 truckloads of ruined belongings to them! Can you imagine losing so much? The work was both heartbreaking and back breaking. Having lost most items in the house and shop, their attention quickly shifted to saving the house itself. Kathy and Liz ran commercial fans and dehumidifiers 24/7 for 10 days and sanitized the best they could to prevent mold, the one thing that kills a house from the inside out. They are now renting a heated 10x10 storage unit for their few salvaged belongings.

Their town declared the flood a disaster but it has to be a federally-declared disaster to be recognized by FEMA and so those disaster relief funds are not available to them at this time. The county has accessed the La Conner flood loss at $2.6 million, most of that residential. The County will address the State, who will address the federal government, etc... There is no guarantee they will receive any government help. The nucleus of their home is now in need of major repairs – walls, flooring, plumbing, electrical, and subfloors need to be removed and replaced. All this must happen to get it to a safe and sanitary, living condition. All of this needs to be done before they can even consider replacing the appliances and furniture to make their home livable again.

Liz says: “We are private people and going through something like this has made us feel really vulnerable. We haven’t posted any of this online because it’s so personal. We have been especially blessed to be held up in prayer and cared for with actions of love by those we have reached out to or have reached out to us. Our silver lining has been seeing how much we are truly loved. It is very humbling and tears are always close by. We are so grateful to our wonderful neighbors, family, friends, and town officials for their immediate support. We could not have made it this far without you!”

They are now reaching out as suggested by friends. They are very capable of doing much of the necessary work themselves but what they don’t have is the means because the loss is so overwhelming.

Once they have some funds for supplies they will start the daunting task of getting their home safe and sanitary. Some of the work will need to be hired out. They will address the water source first to have a functioning toilet (the sewer was not affected). They will set up “house” in their travel trailer in the backyard and get to work. Kathy says: “It will take time but we’re not afraid of hard work.”

They estimate it will cost at least $50,000 to make their home safe and livable, with Liz and Kathy doing most of the work themselves. Donations will be used to replace the damaged electrical system, the plumbing and destroyed subfloor to make the house safe. There will still be a lot of work after that before it can again be their comfortable home. With your help, they will get there!

If you’d prefer to send support, please do so at:

Liz Faletti/Kathy Craig

PO Box 1195, #17

La Conner, WA 98257

Home Depot Gift Cards can be obtained at:

https://homedepot-ca.cashstar.com/store/recipient?locale=en-ca

Home Depot e-cards or other gift-cares can be sent to:

[email redacted]