Giving back...

Steve and I, along with a group of six others, are working on homes on the New Jersey shore that were hit last year by Hurricane Sandy. It never ceases to amaze me to hear the stories of the survivors. Rich and Donna live in a small, modest house on the shore. They were home when Sandy hit. Rich was in the basement when it started to fill up with water. He couldn't get out.

Their daughter swam - yes, you heard that right - swam to the neighbors, who rushed over, cut a hole in the kitchen floor and pulled Rich to safety with very little time to spare. The hole in the floor was a blessing in another way - they got less water in the house because it ran through the hole into the ground.

Rich and Donna had absolutely no help from the government and their insurance company, which they never missed a payment to or were late with, gave them the runaround. This is a story I have heard from others in similar situations in the four other places I've done relief work. And it sucks.

Things need to change - it will not surprise me to hear that the people in Oklahoma who have lost homes go through the same thing. It's not right.