On the evening of September 26th, Hurricane Helene passed off the coast of Tampa. Storm surge rose 7 feet in the bay pushing water up the Hillsborough River and into our house. As the water got higher, we grabbed our kitties and went to higher ground. When we returned the next day, we found the house had taken on a lot of water. All of our furniture had to be thrown out and we lost many personal items. Luckily most of our clothing made it out ok but our daughter Olive lost all her shoes except the ones she wore when we left the house along with all her art supplies and the good Manga. Ha.

We are on the sixth day of removing the water damaged items and putting what we were able to salvage in storage for the time being. Luckily we have awesome neighbors that are allowing us to stay with them while we seek new housing as our old place is uninhabitable.

As everyone that lives in Tampa knows, the price of rentals has skyrocketed over the past few years and it’s become increasingly difficult to find any sort of affordable housing. It’s going to be an even bigger challenge to replace all our furniture and afford the cost of moving. We know things are tight for everyone these days and we wouldn’t be asking if we truly didn’t need to. If anyone out there reading this wants to

donate a few dollars so we can get back on our feet we would all greatly appreciate it. If not, no worries. There are many people out there that got it way worse than us. We are just thankful we are ok.

The Zaks

Denise

Olive

Keith