Moving Forward Update #9

Dear Friends,

Wonderful news this morning as we learned that Shell Point now has power! We have many residents there and I'm sure they are rejoicing in light and a/c tonight! 

• Because more people now have internet access, I encourage you to go to the website and review the past daily Moving Forward Updates with lots of important information and resources for you, including the link where you can view last night's all parish zoom gathering.

• More wonderful news; as announced earlier today, we will be gathering in person this weekend at Peace Lutheran Church, 15840 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers on Sunday, October 9 at 11:30am  . They are excited to welcome us and do whatever they can to be Christ for their neighbor. We are grateful for the churches from various denominations that have reached out to offer whatever they can for their fellow believers. Thanks to Temporary Location Team Chair Suzy Post for working on this. I will be visiting with them on Saturday and I'll take care of getting the ministers we need once I see the layout, then I will be talking with the schedulers for the various ministries to get schedules going moving forward. 

• The good news keeps rolling from the Housing Team Chair Deb Larson:  We are looking for HAVES and WANTS among our parishioners for TEMPORARY HOUSING. If you HAVE a spare room in your home, please provide you Name, Address, contact email and cell number and size of space and number of persons you can accommodate. Also, please state whether you will allow pets and how you feel about smokers. If you NEED temp housing, Please state your name, contact email and cell, the number of people in your group and approximately what your anticipated length of stay. (We realize that this will be difficult to estimate, but best guess will. Be fine.). Please email to: deblarsonrealestate@gmail.com or please text to : 703-966-9474

• Hurricane Relief Fund  Please spread the word on the fund – www.saintmichaels-sanibel.org Checks can be made out to St. Michael's Hurricane Relief Fund and mailed to Susan Gonzalez's home at 10436 Peso Del Rio Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33908

• Office –
•  church office number is forwarded to a separate line at Susan’s house- if you have simple questions, need information, or need a link please call the church office, as much as we love to talk to you, our plates are full, so it would be helpful if you could utilize the church office phone number and Susan as much as possible for basic information.  Wanda will be coming to Susan’s home on Tuesdays to work from there. Financial questions should be directed to Susan temporarily. Church mail is being forwarded to Susan's home.
• Staff will be working from home for the present time.
• People have asked- how can we help? We could use office supplies to get our mobile offices running.   Perhaps you have some of these items at home or are near a place where you could get them. To get us up and running quickly, see below for the items needed. Or as an alternative if you would like to donate a gift card to Office Depot or Staples, Susan could purchase what we need. Please contact Susan G if you have these items
• a color laser printer for Susan to use- (even in the short term and she could swap you with a slower printer she has)
• A printer for Sue and I - again a gently used one or new one and some cartridges 
• file folders
• pocket folders
• Toner/ink for Epson Stylus NX110
• Copy Paper letter size and some legal as well (but Susan could order so not a priority)
• Webcam.
•  Letter size file folders
• In addition, for us - Basic office supplies- scrap paper, stapler, tape, scissors, pens, spiral notebooks, legal pads etc (we don't need a lot, just to get us started since we are in a rental condo without basics like that. 

Resources: (please know Sue adds new resources every day after the Sanibel city briefing, we really encourage you to watch them by going to the City of Sanibel FaceBook page. They were starting at 6:30pm but today started at 5pm. They share a wealth of information and you can watch it after the fact as well.
 
1. There is now a huge village of helpful agencies and resources set up at the Lake Library at 15290 Bass Road, open 9-6 daily. Lee County has set up a 1 stop location for several agencies to assist you as well as the FEMA Disaster center.  You can also go to leegov.com/storm as well. They have:

• You can get local and state documents, driver's license, birth certificate and other lost documents
• apply for disaster assistance money that will be directly deposited in your account with a few days
• get help filing your FEMA flood insurance claim. 
• apply for the US Army Corp of Engineers blue tarp program if you are a PRIMARY resident and have 50% percent or less roof damage, you can grant access to them to go on your property, access your roof damage and tarp it for you.
• mental health resources
• wireless carriers
• nonprofit distribution centers
• immediate help with living expenses

2. The FEMA regional coordinator from Atlanta joined via zoom and offered lots of good information on flood insurance claims; here are some important highlights:

• Take as many photos as possible, hundred's not a few and inventory all damage, if you have brand names, descriptions, and an estimate of how old items are
• you can and should remove wet carpeting, furniture, mattresses, etc, anything that is wet but take photos before you take out and then of the pile outside. Do not put it by the curb, but put it on the side or back of the house until the insurance adjustor gets there. 
• If you live on Sanibel, there will be an extension to the deadline to attempt to mitigate mold since you are not able to get to the island. When you are able, remove carpeting, drywall if the damage is only up part of the wall, etc, BUT save sections for FEMA. Put them in a ziploc bag.
• Advance payments are available to help get you started, accepting this doesn't mean your claim is closed. You will get proof of loss to acknowledge their estimate and you can go back and ask for an increase. 
• If you have to live in a rental, and have private FEMA policies, they will cover rental expenses, if you have NIFP FEMA policies it will not but some homeowner policies will, so check with your agent!
• Homeowners are still expected to provide boat transportation for your adjustor at this point. 

On a personal note, the Lord heard your prayers for us and Bill was able to see our home and we were spared the surge entering the first level; it stopped 2 steps from the house in the garage, with water only damaging the garage, car, crawlspace and back yard. There are so many with more severe damage that we continue to hold in our hearts.  Hope to see those in the local area at St. Michael's Mainland church this Sunday at Peace Lutheran at 11:30am. 
 
Peace, Bill+ and Sue