As heart wrenching as it was to see a huge part of my city under water, the view is even more devastating now…

More than 1,000 city blocks look like the picture above. Actually, the piles in that picture are fairly small compared to most of them.

 

I can’t even begin to imagine what it feels like to see the contents of your home sitting on the curb.

 

Or to see something like this when you finally are allowed into your place of business.

 

Then have to spend days removing all the ruined equipment and furniture.

 

You no longer have the comfort of home because this is what your home looks like.

 

So far the city has identified 300 homes that they will demolish within 3 days. These homes were deemed so unsafe that the owners are not even being allowed to enter them to remove possessions that were not ruined by the flood. Imagine coming home from work one day to discover a purple notice on your door stating that your home and all the contents will be reduced to a pile of rubble in a few days. Period. There will be more homes that will be demolished but these first 300 are too unsafe to let sit any longer. The current estimate that as many as 2,000 houses will have to be demolished. 2,000. That’s half of the 4,000 homes that were flooded.

 

I just recently had to drive through a part of the devastation and it brought me to tears. The tears were not for the buildings or the furniture or even for the irreplaceable family mementos; the tears were for the people I saw hauling out all of these items. I see the devastation but I cannot begin to imagine what it must feel like to experience the devastation.

 

It’s now hot and humid here and the air is heavy … heavy with moisture, heavy with mold and stench, and heavy with despair. As awful as they all are, it’s the despair that creates an unrelenting oppression that makes it difficult to breathe. You can feel the stress, the fear, and the mourning of the people as they pull apart their homes and drag to the curb the remnants of their hopes and dreams. It is incredibly hard and heavy work made even more difficult because each time they make a trip to the curb they carry not only ruined furniture on their backs, but also the heavy burdens of fear, sadness, and helplessness. Some people have lost their homes, their jobs (because their employer is temporarily or permanently out of business due to the flood), and their places of worship (nine large churches were flooded). They have lost the places they would normally turn to in a time of need. How lost and disoriented they must feel right now.

 

Please don’t misunderstand, however; they are not giving up. Even with their futures in the air, and large portions of their pasts washed away, they are looking to the future. But it will be a long, muddy road.

 

Next week I’m going to go into the worst hit areas and hand out some care packages and other items to try to alleviate some of the despair if only for a brief moment. I’m thinking of movie tickets (I figure they could use a little escape once they’re done working), Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen (it’s supposed to be pretty hot next week), bug spray (the mosquitoes are terrible because of all the water), dog and cat food and toys, etc.

 

I know you guys don’t know me, but if anyone is interested in making a donation to help purchase these items it would be very much appreciated and I would ensure it would all go to those who need some help.

 

Please email me at juliadream68@msn.com if you’re interested in making a donation.