The Fire that Displaced My Family

UPDATE - 6/12/12

I have been informed that if you would like to ship anything to my family you can use the old address and the post office will hold onto it until my mother can pick it up. No they do not have a new place yet and are still looking. They do however have storage at a U Haul unit in order to hold the stuff in the interim. If you don't know the address feel free to get in contact with me. I am doing my best to coordinate with my family and donors while in Florida.

Again thank you everybody who is so willing to help. Yesterday my mother filled up the trunk & back seat of her car with donations given from the wonderful people from my undergraduate institution NYIT...THANK YOU!!!

I know friends and family from UConn have made many donations and I have shipped a couple boxes from my friends and colleagues from USF already. Know that you have done so much for my family on top of all of those people willing to donate their hard earned money to help my mother and two brothers find stability in their lives again.

ORIGINAL POST

My older brother Adam called me in the early afternoon on Saturday May 26th 2012 and the first words out of his mouth were "We are homeless." You can hear the mixture of feelings in his voice as he followed up that statement with "the house caught on fire" and "we lost everything and have no where to live." 

I am currently living approximately 1200 miles away in Florida as my family in West Haven CT had to watch as firemen broke in their windows, sprayed water throughout the apartment, battled the flames and smoke that built up from the basement and throughout the rest of the building. I can only imagine what it feels like to be in that moment as neighbors, police officers, firemen, and good Samaritans try to console my Mother Sharon and two brothers Adam, and Josh to tell them "things will be alright" or "you will make it through this."

THANKFULLY EVERYONE WAS PHYSICALLY UNINJURED!

Below is the damage from the fire that you can see from outside but in no way does it show how badly the smoke and water has demolished the insides of the house

This is what happens after, they board up the windows that they broke into and they tape a notice on the door saying the house is currently uninhabitable

Put yourself in my Mother's shoes for a second, she is a Mother of three boys mostly raising us completely on her own, now after this happened what do you do? You lost your clothes, you don't have a place to store or cook food, you don't have a place to take a shower, and you have to quickly figure out how to provide those basic necessities to your family in order to survive...I can imagine that is not easy to do as you deal with the shock from this disastrous event.

Therefore, I am extremely thankful for three things at this moment.

1. Red Cross since they are fantastic and I would highly encourage anybody to learn about them more thoroughly since they have put my family up in a hotel for 3 nights and provided a small amount of food and clothing money.
    
2. How wonderfully quick my family in the area became responsive to the situation after I got in contact with them and they gave me reassurance that my Mother and brothers will have the support they initially need and that I specifically can't give at the time due to being in Florida
    
3. The community, Firemen, Policemen, Neighbors, friends in town, friends out of town, and facebook friends who have my family in their prayers, have stated they would like to help, or generally sent kind thoughts our way.

Realistically though, it can be weeks or months until the house is even habitable and the costs of replacing items lost cannot even be figured out at the moment but my family needs help.

HELP ME HELP MY FAMILY

• Donate money to a fund made specifically for recovery from this fire
• Click the below link to donate as little or as much as you would like to my family's fire recovery fund. 
• You may pay with any of the credit cards listed below
• Pay Pal is a safe and secure method of donating
• Sadly since we are not a tax exempt 501c3 organization any donations will not be claimable on your taxes (don't want to lie to you)
• I am personally accountable for all funds collected

• If you are uncomfortable with that process I will be setting up a more direct way to donate through Bank of America by the end of the week
   

• Send items they may need (clothing, food, etc.)
• Email me at Mflynn86@gmail.com so we can coordinate efforts in getting those items to my family members


• Send cards to keep their spirits up and put a smile on their face
• Email me at Mflynn86@gmail.com so that I can send you my address as I will be collecting items to be sent to my family's temporary address once they find a somewhat stable place to live for the time being
   

THE #1 THING YOU CAN DO 

SHARE THIS BLOG POST ON FACEBOOK, TWITTER, OR ANY OTHER FORM OF MEDIA THAT MAY REACH OTHER PEOPLE

Words cannot and will not ever be able to describe how grateful I will be and how thankful my family will be for all of the help that they have received and will receive as they slowly climb out of this messy situation to gain some normalcy in their lives.

THANK YOU for anything and everything you may do to help!!!

Feel Free to contact my mother and two brothers directly on facebook 
since at this time that may be the best form of communication to reach them.

My Mom Sharon on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/sharon.corey.5

My Older brother Adam on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/Cadaeus 

My Younger brother Josh on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/prolificmemories

You can get in contact with me either through this page, my email address which is mflynn86@gmail.com, or through my facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/mflynn86