After nearly nine years U.S. veteran John W. of Mastic Beach is finally home. It wasn't until this year that he was able to move into his newly built home in after it suffered irreparable damage due to Superstorm Sandy. United Way of Long Island reached out to help John by providing him a mobile trailer to live in to give him a place to call home while he waited for his permanent house to be completed. Welcome Home John!
John writes:
First I would like to thank you all from United Way for coming to my rescue. It’s been several years after being flooded from Hurricane Sandy, which I stayed through, flooded by a foot and a half of water inside my house. It was quite an experience seeing the water coming up the block like the tide, then up my driveway and then into my house through all the places it could find its way in, until eventually a foot and a half of water was inside the first floor. Things were floating, including my bed which I made up that day from a couple of milk crates, a door, and a camper mattress because I was not going to stay upstairs for fear of trees coming through the roof. I had to spend the night on the stairs, sitting on a boat cushion and holding a life preserver to my chest just in case the water got higher. The house was surrounded by water, there was no electricity, no phone. I was trapped. My house needed to be demolished and rebuilt, but I stayed there. It was not until August of 2017 that the house was declared unlivable and I was ordered out. For two months I lived like a refugee, I could not get it all together to get a trailer to live in. it was all a bit too much. Then, like a miracle, United Way headed by Theresa and her team, funded by generous contributors, came to my rescue and hooked me up with a trailer to live in which became my home sweet home until my house was rebuilt. Thank you all, so very much, for coming to my rescue.
