Hurricane Ian Relief for Coquina Frederick

As we all know, last week, the Hurricane we've all been warned about for many years made landfall. The catastrophic weather event has greatly hit all of our family in the Sanibel/Ft. Myers area.

My family has been on Sanibel Island since the 1950's. Before the bridges, before the resorts. Even though I moved to California many years ago, Southwest Florida is still a massive part of who I am. It is imperative to me to help my family continue to be a part of this region and repair and rebuild.

We are asking for help today to take the financial burden off of my sister's shoulders. She is a single mother with two active boys. Coquina is also a first responder and has worked 12-hour shifts since the initial calls for evacuations. She worked tirelessly and selflessly even as she was getting updates from her neighbors that her home was taking on many feet of water during the storm surge.

Yesterday Coquina finally had a day off and was able to visit her property. She was met with complete carnage in her home. The flooding left a sludge of river slime and sand everywhere. Destroyed 90% of the contents of her home. Even with complete hurricane shutter systems, the shear force of the water took out doors and shutters and displaced items throughout her property. Quick-growing toxic mold is already starting to take over the entire interior of her home, to add insult to injury.

We are raising funds to help Coquina replace immediately needed items for her boys (they only have the clothes and shoes they packed in their school bags), secure temporary housing while her home is remediated and repaired and cover insurance deductibles.

We completely understand that many families are in need of assistance at this moment, and we hope that if you cannot contribute funds, you can contribute by sharing this story.

Here are a few images from before clean up and after. As you can see, these young boys have lost all of their worldly possessions. The black mold on the engineered flooring is currently taking over the entire bedroom.