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Kindness shown unbelievable

To the editor:

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Portage Health Foundation, Hubbell and Lake Linden Fire Departments, the church communities, and all the volunteers that helped with the work they did this summer after the June 17 flood.

We should all be grateful for the enormous task taken on by all of these organizations. Not everyone in our community had a loss. Those of us who did will always be in debt to organizations and individuals who showed great kindness and generosity. It was very overwhelming how quickly this community of volunteers came together to try and make our community whole again.

Portage Health Foundation took on an especially enormous task. They not only provided financial help, they also helped to organize the contractors that were working on the homeowner projects. PHF organized the collection and disbursement of both private and corporate funding. They vetted the contractors, making sure they were reliable, licensed, and insured. There was a fee schedule set up to ensure fees were fair.

I know many in the community felt the progress on the cleanup was not going fast enough. I disagree. There were nearly 500 projects needing to be inspected and prioritized. PHF made sure all homes were stabilized, and made safe for homeowners. Many furnaces and water heaters were replaced. The most urgent projects were taken care of first.

I can speak of my daughter Suzanne’s experience. She was one of the eight total-loss homes. It was a very stressful situation to find out at 4:45 a.m. that you are now homeless and most of your belongings have been washed away. I am happy to say that within a three-month period, she had a plan in place for getting her into another home, and having the old one abated and demolished.

The kindness of all those who helped her was unbelievable. She received monetary, clothing, furniture, and household goods from so many kind people and organizations too numerous to mention.

She is back on the road to having a normal life. I am very grateful for all the help my daughter and I received this summer. I always knew this was a special community. This summer I was proved correct.

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