FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A Fort Lauderdale family was forced out of their home in April due to severe flooding and lost everything.
Now, they’re living with a relative and just trying to have as normal a holiday season as they can.
“I mean, it looked like the apocalypse, really,” Rebecca Richmond said.
Rebecca and Ryan Richmond, and their two daughters, used to live in Fort Lauderdale.
But on April 12, the life they had made for themselves was swept away as the area was hit with historic flash flooding.
“I open the back door now this time, the water is almost to the handle of the door, so a big flood comes in and I’m out in the backyard -- everything we had on the back porch is floating -- it’s just mayhem, the water’s up almost to my waist,” Ryan Richmond said.
The house they were renting was badly damaged and much of what they owned was destroyed.
Since the flood, the family of four has been living with Rebecca’s 87-year-old grandmother in a two-bedroom trailer home, and while both parents have been picking up jobs where they can, they still struggle to make ends meet.
Now, as the holiday season comes around, they are asking for help giving their daughters the Christmas they deserve.
“Things in past years that I’ve just done without even thinking about -- decorations, gifts, grocery shopping -- until you’re at a moment in life where you aren’t able to do those, you don’t even realize all that goes into that,” Rebecca Richmond said.
Now this area of Fort Lauderdale is once again bracing for several inches of rain, but, of course, nothing like what we saw in April.
If you’d like to help the Richmond family this holiday season, you can email them directly at Rebaerin325@gmail.com.