I deployed on Team Rubicon’s ongoing response to Hurricane Helene in Pasco County, Florida, in October. On my second day on the operation, I experienced one of the most meaningful interactions with a homeowner I’ve had in my years as a Greyshirt.
That day, we finished mucking out Gail’s home. As a team, we had decided to do a little something extra for her since she lives alone, is a breast cancer survivor, and was finally able to buy her retirement dream home in 2019.
As we had worked, Gail had told us, with tears in her eyes, about how she had watched through a house camera as her home flooded during Hurricane Helene. She also lost her dream car in the flooding—it was not fixable.
When she signed up for help she was desperate. A company had told her they would charge her $40,000 to clean the house—an astounding sum she couldn’t muster. She was sad because she did not have that kind of money, and yet the damage was everywhere.
Gutting the flooded drywall, removing soaked carpets, and mucking the house so she could live in it again was something we Greyshirts could do at no cost to her. And so, we did.
From our first day at Gail’s home, she was welcoming. At every opportunity, she told us how grateful she was and that we had no idea what all the help we were providing meant for her. She told us she felt so comfortable with the team because she knew we understood how important the house was to her.
The team worked hard to be able to clean everything the flood had damaged. While we make it a point to remove drywall 1 foot above the flood line, it had been so bad at Gail’s that, as a team, we decided to take the drywall out all the way up to the ceiling due to the extra damage she had.
And then, we took it one step further. While we aren’t mold remediation experts, we wanted to leave Gail’s home truly TR-clean. So, before leaving, we also cleaned the mold with bleach to make sure she had a cleaner environment.
I am so proud to work with exceptional people ready to help and work until their muscles no longer respond. As Greyshirts, we work helping people we will likely never see again, but I know that folks like Gail will never forget us. And Gail is definitely one of the homeowners I will never forget as well. She inspires me to this day with her positive attitude.
