Kosmicki's Flood Relief

Hey Guys, As most of you know Andrea & Jeremy were hit pretty hard this week by the storms that rolled in on Wednesday night and continued throughout the day Thursday. With water still sitting there's still not a complete understanding of what the damages are but are imaged to be very excessive. Andrea posted today on her Facebook :Good morning family and friends! First, Jeremy and I want to personally thank everyone who checked in on us and offered their support!!!! We are SO appreciative of everyones kind words, willingness to help and offer us a place to stay. We are so fortunate to have wonderful people in our lives and seriously you guys reaching out helped boost our morale given the catastrophe we are dealing with. Last night, I woke up to feed baby around 2 in the morning. I didn't think much of the storm and just chalked it up to a good summer storm that was rolling through. Shortly after this, I received the flash flood alert on my phone and then heard a intense buzzing noise (it ended up being the dryer buzzer going off since it was flooded). I walked to the back room and saw the yard. I literally thought I was dreaming. I immediately ran downstairs to see the basement and it was flooded with water. I woke up Jeremy right away. Jeremy moved my car as our entire backyard was slowly rising! Our garage sits further back on our property. By 7 am, the other part of the storm ROLLED through. Imagine being at a water park where the bucket fills with water and then comes crashing down. That is exactly what was happening as we watched through the windows. I had Cheyenne dressed and ready to leave to a safe place but had to wait until the rain died down in order to leave safely. I got in my car and just BARELY got out of my neighborhood in my Civic. And there are 3 different exits to leave. Then I drove all around Fox Lake trying to get out of the town. I finally made it to Mundelein with baby. Such a scary experience!!!!!In the meantime, Jeremy was holding down the fort. He quickly was able to get our motorcycles out of the the garage because if he didn't, they would have been under water. He first moved them to higher water in our neighbors garage then eventually our buddy Rick up the street let us use his garage for the bikes. He moved our camper close to the house and then eventually somehow towed it out of the neighborhood to his dad's house. Everything in our basement including all appliances are totaled. All of our memories (pictures, yearbooks, etc) and things....trashed! I have a dumpster coming. It will be hard to throw this away.What saddens me the most is Jeremy's beloved mini truck the ranger is TOTALED. It is sitting under water in the garage. Many tears from both us.From what I was told from our neighbors, firefighters came down the street to check on residents, NICOR came and shut off the gas, somehow we still have power and of course we cannot use the well water probably for awhile. We will have to get it tested. There is a mechanic near us and there is gas and I am sure oil all in the water. Through it all, Jeremy remained completely calm and reassuring for Cheyenne and I! He even took our canoe for a spin in the backyard. His motto yesterday: It is what it is. And he made the best of it despite all the bad.The water is at the highest I have ever seen it. The last flood was bad, but not to this level. We are fortunate that the living part of our house is elevated so we didn't loose everything like some residents. We are lucky and acted quickly and got baby to safety, saved our vehicles and "toys". Yes, we have flood insurance however we were forced starting this year of course to suddenly pay over $3000 for the annual premium without any upfront notice. In order to keep the premium affordable ($1200 was the lowest we could go), we had to jack the deductible up to $10,000. So we were forced to pay for insurance that we cannot even use. Everything we are doing to clean up the house is going to be out of pocket. As mentioned, the clean up with be difficult...more emotional if anything. We will be utilizing our friend's help (we will contact you as soon as the water is gone) for supplies. Next week is dedicated to dumpster clean up.Jeremy, baby and I are staying with my parents until it is safe to go back home. We love all you guys! WE ARE SO LUCKY to know and have such great people in our lives.LET'S ALL PULL TOGETHER AND HELP OUR FRIENDS!