NW Ga. welcomes Harvey refugees
The family of six is trying to find stability after their home was destroyed within the first 24 hours of Hurricane Harvey coming ashore.
With their mobile home flooded and the roof collapsed a day after Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas on Aug. 25, one Hispanic family from Houston gathered what they could in their car and headed to Cartersville.
On Thursday, the family of six sat in the American Red Cross of Northwest Georgia office in Rome as they tried to figure out what their next step would be. Maria and her husband, Luis, with their three children Adrian, 15, Abraham, 12, and Angeles, 10, and Luis’ brother Eber, completed their frantic journey on Monday, when they made it to Luis’ sister’s home. They requested only their first names be used in this report.
Luis’ sister helped them find a home for rent this week, and the family put down
what money they had to secure a place to stay, but the home is unfurnished, Maria said through an interpreter. His sister’s home was already crowded before they arrived, and only the kids have been able to sleep inside, as the others stayed outside in a vehicle, she continued.
Keith Cheek, a disaster action team responder with the American Red Cross of Northwest Georgia, met the family and spent Thursday afternoon interviewing them and determining what they needed. The family was provided with comfort kits, filled with personal hygiene items, along with contacts and directions on how to set up utility services at their rental, get furniture at The Salvation Army, and apply for FEMA financial assistance.
Cheek led the family to The Salvation Army in Rome for a hot meal and gave them a list of places in Cartersville to find food assistance. The Red Cross is also providing health services for the family, Cheek said. Maria said she is a diabetic and doesn’t have her glucose meter, and Abraham fell at a gas station as the family evacuated and was injured.
Maria and Luis were about $3,000 away from owning their mobile home, Cheek said, which they didn’t have flood insurance on. It’s terrible to
have to see all that they had worked so hard for destroyed, Maria said. And now they have to start all over, finding new jobs and putting the kids in school.
Many of the freeways were closed or cut off due to flooding as the family left, Maria said, taking hours to get out of town. Stores were either out of food and water or the lines were huge, she explained, and even as they traveled out of Texas they found prices for water ratcheted up.
Maria’s older daughter is still in Houston, at a complex where some units have collapsed, and has told her she was glad she got out, because it’s really awful there. The 23-year-old is still living in her apartment, which experienced some flooding but not as bad as other places, with her two babies — one is 2 years old and the other a month and a half old — causing great worry for Maria.
Those wishing to assist the family can contact the Red Cross of Northwest Georgia at 844-536-6226.