Support Us As We Rebuild Our Lives After Devastating Flood

Quick update:

First and foremost, thank you for your prayers, thoughts and financial support.

Milton is on its way and is expected to cross just south of Tampa, right where we are located. We have evacuated and are safe with friends. We are prepared for the worst and pray for the best. It’s really hard to even conceive of another storm that’s even stronger than the last.

*****************************************

We live in paradise, until it’s not. Last Thursday, my husband JT Sears and I (Pam) evacuated our home due to flood surge warnings of 5-8 feet. We came home the next day to 4 feet of water inside our home. We’ve lost everything on the first floor (kitchen counters, all appliances, new dining room, living room, bedroom, and office furniture).

We've applied for disaster assistance from FEMA, and our insurance adjuster is scheduled, but it will be two weeks since the storm before he arrives, and we haven’t heard back from FEMA yet. It will probably be a month before they work the claim and longer before they reimburse.

At the moment, we have had to purchase a new generator because all but one outlet of our power is shorted out. (Thankful to Home Depot for having them in stock.) Dear friends drove their Winnebago from Miami so we have a place to stay, but we run the generator almost all day so we have a clean place to come in and cool off (heat index 103, humidity upper 80’s) at about $25 a day in fuel.

With so much devastation around the entire coast of FL, we haven’t been able to find a water damage restoration contractor, so we’re trying to dry out ourselves. We have to pack and move everything we were able to put on the second floor just before we evacuated. We're grateful for friends and a group of high school kids who helped from a local school clean up everything that floated into the yard.

I pray you never go through this; this is the second time in almost exactly a year for us.

We are usually the helpers…

First and most important, we appreciate your prayers as we decide where we go next. After 8 months of surgery and health issues for me, we won’t go through this again and would like to clean up and enjoy our retirement!

If you contribute or not, know we send our love and we’re keeping the faith that something better will be on the other side of this.

I’ll upload photos when I can get somewhere with a better signal.

Thank you, and we hope all is well in your world!

IF YOU PREFER VENMO: @Sears-Pamela