Help Haley Recover After Massive Flood Damage

Kalyn Branch is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Haley Harms.

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Hello, my name is Kalyn and I have created this GoFundMe account on behalf of my sister, Haley, and her son, Dax.

Haley needs your help. Over the course of the last several days, northern Illinois has experienced terrible storms and flash flooding. The flooding began on Sunday, July 14th, and rapidly began filling the basement of Haley’s home. She was shocked at this, as she has lived in that house for 6 years and never experienced any kind of water getting into the house due to bad weather. The amount of water rushing in overwhelmed two separate drains, drain tiles, and her sump pump. The entire floor was covered in water in less than five minutes, and over the course of the next 2 1/2 hours, the water level rose to 4 1/2 feet. Not only is her basement completely underwater, her detached garage flooded as well and was found to have roughly 3 feet of standing water.

As you can imagine, the damage is utterly devastating. Her basement was a wonderfully lived in space. She had set it up like a living room with a projector to watch movies. She had a designated space for working out with various workout equipment. She and her son did crafts, played games, and had friends over to come hang out in that space. The basement also included a finished half bathroom that was completely destroyed. Some of the items Haley has lost include:

a recently installed water heater
a washer and dryer
her furnace
an AC unit
a deep freezer
the vanity in her bathroom, including all her cosmetics, skin care, and hair care supplies
all the lawn care and power tools in her garage
newly planted landscaping that was completely washed away, including all the ground cover and mulch
yard decorations and solar lights
all the flooring, baseboards, and basement walls

The flooding and rain didn’t stop on July 14th. It continued on for the following two days, making it nearly impossible to salvage anything.

Unfortunately, Haley’s homeowners insurance is refusing to cover ANY of the damages because the water damage was caused by a flood rather than a pipe breaking or something. She does not have any flood coverage, and can’t even buy it if she wanted to because she doesn’t live in a flood zone. Without this financial help, the cost to repair the damage to her home and replace the loss of her major appliances and belongings is TREMENDOUS. After assessment, the estimated cost came out to around $35,000.

Haley needs your help. She is a single mom with a 4 year old son, and this kind of disaster can’t be repaired by her alone. I ask that you would please consider helping her financially with any size gift that you can. Every dollar will count, and will go toward helping her repair her home. I also ask that you please share this GoFundMe page with anyone you know who you think would be willing to help as well. Thank you for your support!!

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