No where to start but from the beginning.

It is Sunday night at 11 pm.  We have two days of demo under our belt, but there are still many things to do tomorrow- along with a drive back to San Anotonio.  Being here at one of the many ground zeros that  hurricane Harvey created - it is  a separate world and disconnected from current events, what day of the week it is, politics.  People here are still waiting to go back to work, kids still have not gone back to / started the school year.  While many are aching for the normalcy that those things bring, real normalcy seems a long way off.  When Dave and I drove into the Houston area via the interstate, the city looked deceivingly good.  It wasn't until we got off the interstate that we saw street after street of houses with a majority of their interior contents on their front-yards.  When we finally made it to our house it was difficult to find a parking spot - it seemed every house had family, friends, and sometimes strangers there helping.  But, the amount of work to be done is personally the most I have every seen in real life.  Whether a house had 6 inches of water or 16 inches water, the enemy is mold.  Drywall? Out. Flooring? Out. Cabinets? Out. Bathroom vanities? Out.  Interior doors? Out.  Built in shelves? Out.  Whether these items were in water that was 6 inches deep or 16 inches deep, it comes out.  But the real heartbreaker: I have yet to meet anyone else in my neighborhood that has flood insurance.   And that lack of insurance is not local to the Bay Colony Pointe subdivision - it is estimated that 85% of folks do not have coverage. 85%!  I visited with many neighbors the last two days, each with a different story that has the same outcome.

The house on our left is a family that has lived in the home for 10 years.  This summer they repainted the interior of their home and upgraded the floor.  Now a majority of that work and dollars spent is sitting outside in the yard.
The house on the right is a young couple; this is their first house and they closed on it in May .  They didn't have shovels to scoop up drywall because they are so new to home ownership, they did not have a bank of tools built up in the garage.
What they, the folks across the street, further down the road, around the corner have in common is a lack flood insurance.  No idea what their next steps are, how long FEMA will take, or what relief will come.  Wondering what you can do to help?  These folks need dollars!  Dollars to rebuild.  While we were working on our house, people came through our neighborhood passing out free hot meals, trashbags, wipes, pillows- just to name a few.  In a few weeks Harvey may be out of the spotlight, but these folks will still be waiting on FEMA.