Flooding forced many residents from their homes, Monday morning. While others were left stranded when their vehicles could not make it through rising waters in the streets.
Tuesday, residents at a community on Northwest Fourth Avenue, off of Eighth Street, spent the day picking up the pieces as flood waters began to slowly receded. While some residents pulled clothes from their apartments that reeked of mildew to hang up and dry out, others cleaned out cars that had flooded with water, even though those cars would not start.
Wilton Petibo had his home flooded. "This morning, all the people woke up and put all their clothes outside," he said.
More than 100 residents have turned to the Red Cross for help. Brian Duff and his family sought shelter from the Red Cross. He said his apartment was completely damaged by the water. "Everything's ruined," he said. "The sheet rock's falling off the walls. It smells like something died in there. The mildew smell is already starting to kick in. The windows are fogged up from just the water being in the house."
His wife, Cassandra Duff, added, "all my baby photo albums, it's all gone. We lost it all."
The Red Cross is now waiting for numbers from assessment teams, which will spend Thursday visiting one neighborhood after another. Danny Torress, an American Red Cross Volunteer, explained, "We'll make the determination whether or not we'll have to continue to have the shelter open, and we'll see. But we won't be able to do that until we do the numbers."
The Red Cross reported that they served about 200 meals to families in need and said they will continue to provide service as long as there is a need. After the assessment teams head, they will report to the state, the county and FEMA. Then, possibly some of these areas could see some aid.
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