Flood victim lives in chilly RV as house repairs drag on

[thetransporter]

the flood happened 6 months ago ....

http://www.cbc.ca/m/touch/canada/calgary/story/1.2471565




Flood victim lives in chilly RV as house repairs drag on

Debby Foster and son camping in backyard 6 months after June's flood disaster

CBC News

Posted:Dec 20, 2013 8:37 AM MT
Last Updated:Dec 20, 2013 8:37 AM MT

Debby Foster says it has been challenging living in a trailer in the winter in her backyard.
Debby Foster says it has been challenging living in a trailer in the winter in her backyard. CBC

A family in Erlton is living in a chilly RV in their backyard while they wait for repairs to be finished on their badly flood-damaged house.

Debby Foster and her 27-year-old son have been there for a month. Her husband is hospitalized with ALS.

After the flood they were able to get an apartment rent-free, but just for four months, she said.

rv
Debby Foster and her son are living in a donated RV in the backyard of her flood-damaged house in Erlton. (CBC)

They can't afford to pay rent plus the mortgage on the house, so the donated RV is home for now.

“We're on our property and we can't live in our house so we have no other place to go,” she said.

Living in the trailer has been tough, she said.

“We've had our downs and ups and heating and coldness, and the door broke. And it's just, no bathroom, so that was a little concern. I mean, we were using a bucket for a while. And then they finally put a temporary toilet in there, so that helped.”

There have been many offer of help — from the province, the Red Cross, the city councillor's office and others — but nothing has quite worked out, Foster said.

Danielle Kraus of the Erlton Community Association said she understands it's not always easy to accept help.

“What we observe to be or what we believe to be easy menial tasks that could push us along so quickly are not that easy for someone that's lost everything.”

Foster said her husband doesn’t want to move to long-term care or a hotel room that was offered.

She said he just wants to move home when the repairs are done, possibly by the end of January.

[revelations]

My first question would be, what has she done to help herself in this situation? Its not always about the money, its about being proactive when dealing with the government.

[Tik-Tok]

This is the part I noticed.


Originally posted by thetransporter

Foster said her husband doesn’t want to move to long-term care or a hotel room that was offered.


Sooo, they were offered a hotel (likely from insurance), but they'd rather stay in a broken trailer and piss in a bucket?

[Supa Dexta]

Are they getting paid to stay there? that would fill in some blanks.

[Seth1968]

Holy shit.

What an ungrateful family.

[FixedGear]

based on the photos,that RV is probably quite an upgrade.

[adidas]

Sounds to me like they want a new houses handed to them for free. Some ppl couldnt help themselves if their life depended on it.

[Mixalot27]

After the flood they were able to get an apartment rent-free, but just for four months, she said.

They can't afford to pay rent plus the mortgage on the house, so the donated RV is home for now.

There have been many offer of help — from the province, the Red Cross, the city councillor's office and others — but nothing has quite worked out, Foster said.

Foster said her husband doesn’t want to move to long-term care or a hotel room that was offered.

She said he just wants to move home when the repairs are done, possibly by the end of January.

Sounds to me like they were provided with a fair bit of help and they turned down several other offers for help. It seems nothing was quite good enough for them. In a crisis/emergency type situation you sometimes have to suck it up and take what you can get. Some people would just rather be stubborn, complain and feel sorry for themselves instead of facing reality and making the best out of a bad situation. I wish them well though as it has been a bitch of a winter so far and It's never fun being cold.

[Jeeper1986]

at least they have an RV to stay in, better then nothing at all :banghead: :banghead:

[403Gemini]

It's ONLY been 6 months. I'd wager less than 10% of the people affected are rebuilt right now. Most restoration companies are scheduling into next year (and even 2015) to get places rebuilt.

Didn't her insurance cover this? She should have additional living expenses to comp some of these costs (assuming she didnt use them all up...)


Originally posted by Tik-Tok


Sooo, they were offered a hotel (likely from insurance), but they'd rather stay in a broken trailer and piss in a bucket?


Originally posted by Supa Dexta
Are they getting paid to stay there? that would fill in some blanks.

They probably were offered a hotel from their insurance company, but in lieu of somebody not accepting that they can take a per diem per day from their insurance company as a payout (usually like $150~ i'd suspect...) , and yeah after seeing the pics , Me-Ma Methface probably is taking the money and just pocketing it

[403Gemini]

double post

[AE92_TreunoSC]

A fire tore through 3 houses across my alley in summer 2012, only one family has moved in since. 2 others are just being completed. These people need to realize there is a huge backlog and they are fortunate to get any assistance.

[vengie]

And her son is 27??? Perhaps it's time for him to man up? Work his ass off and make life better for his family. Pathetic.

[Cos]

.

[Env-Consultant]

Originally posted by vengie
And her son is 27??? Perhaps it's time for him to man up? Work his ass off and make life better for his family. Pathetic.

:werd:

Unless he has a disability (doesn't say he does, but it doesn't say he doesn't), there really isn't any excuse for him to be not working his ass off trying to help his family - especially when his dad has such a serious illness. It's Alberta, c'mmmmon man. Terrible.

[FraserB]

Originally posted by Cos
I had a lady screaming at me that she lost her house in H.R. and she needed power for her 5th wheel. How would she have a christmas tree for her family without power? Oh I dont know maybe calling me 2 weeks before Christmas isnt the right way to go about it?

I found that some people who are affected by the flood, especially the people who make the news or who get escalated usually did SOME of it to themselves or at least dont help themselves out.

Haha, buddy had some moron in his bank screaming about how HR got flooded and they should be doing something for him. Turns out the 6 months of deferred mortgage payments was not enough and he wanted them to forgive the next 20 some years lol.

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by vengie
And her son is 27??? Perhaps it's time for him to man up? Work his ass off and make life better for his family. Pathetic.

Thats the first red flag I noticed... its like.... really? Your living with your mom at that age? wow. :nut:
Those guys need to help themselves, nobody can do that for them. There are gobs of jobs that pay $18/hr+ to start. Why he cant do that then rent a single bedroom apartment, then perhaps sleep on the couch while his mom gets the bedroom (to save money) is beyond me.
How this made the news is beyond me. :rolleyes:

[Cos]

.