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My heart breaks for the tragedy that has come your way. Like many in my community, I have cried for both those that I personally know, as well as those that I don’t. I CANNOT imagine the hopelessness that you must be feeling, however I am also hurt by your words.
When you spoke of the volunteers that missed your home, I was one of them. I packed my son off to the babysitter and spent all day Saturday (not to mention the entire weekend of the 5th and 6th) volunteering my time. I spent ten hours hauling sheet rock, soaking wet carpet, and other pieces of people’s homes to the transfer station. The entire day was heartbreaking. What kept many of the 4500 volunteers that you speak about, out in the freezing rain was a sincere sense of community involvement. I was amazed at the willingness of complete strangers to join forces and methodically clear out house after house. I remember thinking to myself, “if one single person complains about this day I will lose it”. While I am frustrated that your home did not receive the attention that it may have required, please remember this. The first time I drove through the impacted neighborhoods, I had NO concept of the state of the interior of the homes affected. It was a little surreal to walk into a home that seems completely fine outside and discover holes in flooring cut out to dry out the crawl spaces, sheetrock cut halfway up the wall throughout the entire house, and refrigerators tipped over and still leaking water. Naturally when the day came for the community clean-up, I , like many others, headed to the areas that were visually needing help from the outside. What seemed logical to me, and the thousands of other volunteers, probably was not the right move to make. However, each volunteer that walked along the street that day had nothing but good intentions.
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