Florida Week 5
So this week we continued driving around and looking for things to do. A lot more moving sticks to the front yard for people who couldn't do it themselves. Friday was the last day to put out debris by the curb and have the county come pick it up for free.
There was one case that sticks out in my mind though. We were checking out our last case of the day and the family told us about an 80-year-old woman who was given a trailer by FEMA but they never hooked up the electricity to it. Because of this she couldn't move into the trailer and continued to live in her home even though it was deemed unlivable by FEMA. So we went there and her house is a mess. She has a blue tarp roof, most of the windows are boarded up, and there are trash bags attached to the sides where the siding has been ripped off; it's amazing the house is still standing. So we talk to the woman and she had just had electricity hooked up a few days ago but she is still living in the house because the cable and the washer and dryer are still in there. Even though she said she has everything she needs in the trailer and she can get the cable hooked up there instead, she continues to live in the mold. And what's worse is that her daughter is living with her whom her mother referred to as "handicapped" but none of us knew what was wrong exactly. She's not obviously physically disabled which made us come to the conclusion that she is mentally disabled. Now her daughter has a sinus infection that is probably really mold poisoning and she can't get out of the house because she probably doesn't realize that it's harmful. So we couldn't figure out why the woman wouldn't at least have her daughter living in the trailer (it's in the driveway) even if she didn't want to leave the house. So who knows. We got her information and the woman we're working under at United Way is going to look into her case and see what she can do.
And on Friday we did something different, mudane, but different. We moved stuff around on pallets (sp?) in a warehouse.
On Friday-Saturday a bunch of us went and volunteered at a Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society. It was from 6pm on Friday until 6am on Saturday morning. We ended up leaving around 4:30 because we were just standing around doing nothing and had been for quite a few hours.
After coming home and sleeping for 7 hours, we got back up and went to the beach.
There was one case that sticks out in my mind though. We were checking out our last case of the day and the family told us about an 80-year-old woman who was given a trailer by FEMA but they never hooked up the electricity to it. Because of this she couldn't move into the trailer and continued to live in her home even though it was deemed unlivable by FEMA. So we went there and her house is a mess. She has a blue tarp roof, most of the windows are boarded up, and there are trash bags attached to the sides where the siding has been ripped off; it's amazing the house is still standing. So we talk to the woman and she had just had electricity hooked up a few days ago but she is still living in the house because the cable and the washer and dryer are still in there. Even though she said she has everything she needs in the trailer and she can get the cable hooked up there instead, she continues to live in the mold. And what's worse is that her daughter is living with her whom her mother referred to as "handicapped" but none of us knew what was wrong exactly. She's not obviously physically disabled which made us come to the conclusion that she is mentally disabled. Now her daughter has a sinus infection that is probably really mold poisoning and she can't get out of the house because she probably doesn't realize that it's harmful. So we couldn't figure out why the woman wouldn't at least have her daughter living in the trailer (it's in the driveway) even if she didn't want to leave the house. So who knows. We got her information and the woman we're working under at United Way is going to look into her case and see what she can do.
And on Friday we did something different, mudane, but different. We moved stuff around on pallets (sp?) in a warehouse.
On Friday-Saturday a bunch of us went and volunteered at a Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society. It was from 6pm on Friday until 6am on Saturday morning. We ended up leaving around 4:30 because we were just standing around doing nothing and had been for quite a few hours.
After coming home and sleeping for 7 hours, we got back up and went to the beach.