Ty Sanders Flood Relief Fund

My name is Kelly Forsythe and I am writing with hopes to help a close friend of mine, Ty Sanders.  On Thursday, September 1st, Hurricane Hermine came ashore in the small town of Cedar Key, Florida; bringing storm surge peaked 6.1 feet above MHHW (Mean Higher High Water).  When he learned of the storm's path, he began to prepare his home with sandbags, moving as much of his belongings to what he thought was safe ground and decided to brace for the storm.  In the middle of the night the flooding began, he shut off the main to the house but there was nothing he could do to stop it rushing and ruining his home and everything inside.  In the middle of the flooding, he received a phone call about the building next door catching fire, so in true Ty fashion, he went with a fire extinguisher to put out the fire and to ensure the flames did not spread to his home until the Fire Department were on scene.  Ty was employed in law enforcement prior to embarking on the journey a business owner on the island, which is on hold for the foreseeable future.    

I traveled this past weekend to help him go through what is left of his home.  I have never experienced devastation to this magnitude, his home is attached to the family owned commercial space, where is his mother runs her Accounting Firm.  Unfortunately this has not only affected Ty, this affected his mother's business and livelihood, as she has had to go to extreme methods (purchasing sheets of plastic to lay out the papers on, a dehumidifier, Damp Rid and fans to help circulate the air) to dry her clients files moving the business to the home and the community devastation this has caused.  Ty and his family already began the cleanup process for the family business by the time I arrived to help, so we were able to focus on his house.  The rubber bins that contained his childhood memories, pictures, football jersey, book collection, DVD collection, and his rare collection of comics- all ruined.  Anything that was high thigh or less was destroyed, including ALL Major Appliances, Bed, Bookcases, Dining Room Table, Chairs, Entertainment Center, as well as his truck which had sea water almost to the hood for 12 hours.  His family was also informed the building would most likely need to be demolished, as the foundation is raising and there are evident cracks that have emerged on some walls.  Meaning not only has he lost his memories, thousands of dollars of collectible memorabilia and everything a person needs to live, he has lost his actual home to this devastation.   The more unfortunate news is that the commercial insurance policy did not include the contents just the structure, meaning there will be no assistance from a insurance policy to assist in the replacement of the items required to live.   And to add insult to injury, FEMA has not made a determination on disaster status; therefore residents are not able to get any assistance in the meantime.  This is important because Ty is a good person, he is dedicated to strong values and morals,  while in law enforcement he represented the true values of a man dedicated to serving and protecting the citizens and today he would put himself in harms way before he would allow for anyone else to get hurt.  And sometimes-good people experience tragedy to the magnitude that it makes it very difficult to recover from and I am hoping that the kindness of your hearts we can pull together to make his journey a little less tough, and make a difference in one person’s life who has more than countless times helped a stranger, protected a victim and has touched many lives along the way.  The funds would be used to replace the lost items – that can be replaced.  I am happy to post the updates on the progress of Ty and his journey to rebuilding. And thank you for taking time to read his story; I hope we can all make a difference.   #CedarKeyStrong<3