HOW WE HELPED STEVEN’S FAMILY RECOVER FROM HURRICANE ZETA’S DAMAGE

Earlier this year, Steven and his wife traveled from their home in Lithia Springs, Georgia to the island of Saipan to visit their daughter. Before they could return home, the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe. He and his wife have been stuck in Saipan ever since. While this by itself would be considered catastrophic by most, it was only the beginning of the challenges that Steven and his family would face in 2020.

On October 28th, Hurricane Zeta made landfall as a Category 2 storm, impacting thousands of residents across the Southeastern United States. The state of Georgia was no exception. Nearly a million residents in the Metro Atlanta region lost power from Hurricane Zeta, and in some counties the power infrastructure was so damaged that residents were without power for weeks.

Steven didn’t know where to turn, after receiving an urgent call from his neighbor informing him that a large tree had fallen on his home. Seeking assistance, he made a call to Georgia Emergency Management, who referred him and his wife to the Inspiritus Disaster Response Team.

The next day, eager to get to work, our volunteers were at his home assessing the damage. Two days later, the job was done. Despite this project being a huge undertaking, which required hours of planning for safe removal, our team safely extracted the tree, cleared away the brush and debris, and securely tarped his roof.

Once the job was done, Sherry Buresh (Director of Inspiritus Disaster Relief) reached out to Steven to send him before and after photos of his home. Overwhelmed with joy and gratitude, Steven quickly called from halfway around the world in Saipan to personally thank each and every volunteer who repaired his home.

“I can’t thank you guys enough,” said Steven. “I had no idea what I was going to do. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

Inspiritus Disaster Relief program is entirely supported by philanthropic gifts from individuals like you. To ensure that we can help more families like Steven’s return to thriving after a storm, please donate today to: weinspirit.org/donate