Support Katie & Scott’s Recovery from STL Flood

As you may already know, Katie and Scott’s beloved home was unfortunately devastated by the flash floods that impacted the St. Louis area in the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 26th, 2022. This event was especially tragic given it has been less than two years since a 2020 flash flood destroyed the same home and many of their belongings. While Katie and Scott are not the type of couple to typically accept help, they are incredibly grateful for the numerous people who have been reaching out offering to lend a hand. The love and support they have been receiving has allowed them to push through the initial shock and clean up, and has helped them to remain calm despite the very difficult and uncertain road ahead. For the close family and friends looking to support Katie and Scott and make their road ahead a little less challenging, small donations to this GoFundMe will go directly toward what they need most at this time - helping them to cover the $20k+ in insurance deductibles they will need to pay to begin to rebuild as well as the many other out-of-pocket expenses that are not covered by FEMA. On behalf of Katie and Scott, thank you so very much.

Read on for more details on their story, what they need support with and how you can help.

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Katie and Scott have endured one challenge after the next since early 2020, culminating in this most recent flash flood. They have been remarkably resilient, positive and strong through it all.

In Spring 2020, Katie and Scott’s wedding celebration was canceled due to Covid-19 gathering restrictions (instead, they tied the knot at a small, socially distanced ceremony in the park). They made lemonade out of lemons (like Katie and Scott always do) and put the money intended to fund the wedding celebration towards buying their first home as a family (with their late pup Bry). Three weeks after moving in, and while Scott was away on Military orders, a heavy rainstorm hit the area and flooded their new home. Katie and Bry were helped through chest-high rushing water by a selfless neighbor but unfortunately the home and many of its contents were completely destroyed. At the time, Katie and Scott had to drain their savings and rely on generous donations from close family to pay for the ample clean up and rebuild costs not covered by FEMA, as well as living expenses. They took great pride in rebuilding the home over the next seven months and poured a ton of time and energy into the project, seeing a silver-lining opportunity to design it exactly to their liking. They enthusiastically returned home in March 2021 and slowly started filling their restored dream-home with new furniture and memories as a family.

But in the early morning hours of Tuesday, July 26th, 2022, they unfortunately experienced an all too familiar nightmare when historic rainfall and associated flash flooding hit the St. Louis area, including their neighborhood. Given the aggressive nature of this flash flood, Katie and Scott only had a few minutes to move some of their belongings to a high space in hopes of saving anything they could before being rescued (along with their pup, Kona) by firefighters. Needless to say, their new home was destroyed by the flood. Their cars were also totaled. Sadly, this flood was even more damaging, with the waterline inside the house 8-10 inches above where it was in 2020. Not only are Katie and Scott devastated by the loss of the dream home they worked so hard to build, but they now have a long road ahead to navigate FEMA and all of the out of pocket costs that come along with the rebuilding. Fortunately, Katie, Scott and Kona are safe and are living in Scott’s parent’s home in Chesterfield, MO.

Katie and Scott are loved by so many people across several different communities, and everyone has been reaching out to them to offer a helping hand during this incredibly difficult time. While Katie and Scott are not ones to readily accept help (they are a “pull yourself up by your bootstraps” type of couple), they have decided that the best way for them to humbly accept the outpouring of love is by way of a small donation to this GoFundMe. Any donations will help them cover their lofty (over $20k) insurance deductibles and all of the out-of-pocket expenses for cleaning and rebuilding that are unfortunately not covered by FEMA / NFIP.

Additionally, after enduring two catastrophic and life-threatening floods in two years, Katie and Scott are concerned that their property is not a safe place for anyone to call home. They plan to go to bat with the city in hopes that they will buy-out or condemn the property so no one has to live through another devastating flood in the home. This is a longer-term solution that will take several years and they expect there could be hefty legal fees as they navigate this process.

In the event that Katie and Scott receive more support than they need for these purposes, they will direct the funds towards supporting their neighbors’, towards other flood victims in the area, and towards repaying Olive + Opal for some smaller staging items that were in their home (which was on the market) at the time of the flood.

Thank you in advance to all those who support Katie and Scott. The outpouring of love that they have received from everyone around them has been incredibly heartwarming for them during this challenging time and they are so grateful for the support from their community!