The Baxley Family Fundraising Page

UPDATE:

We'd like to send our heartfelt thanks to all of the wonderful friends, family and strangers that have donated to The Baxley's house rebuild. We'd like to share that these donations are being used IMMEDIATELY. We've been able to secure contractors to make the house 'construction ready' be ensuring that it's safe to live in and mold free. That alone has cost our parents $7,000. That's just the start to costs associated with rebuilding the house.

Mom and Carlos want to personally thank everyone and plan to do so when they get the house in a place where they don't have to be there to clean.

See Carlos' interview with WKRG.com in which he shares the story of their rescue and state of their home.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014, is a day that my family, along with many other Pensacola residents, will never forget. This is the day that many families lost everything they've worked their entire lives for.

My mom and step father, Karen and Carlos Baxley, like many in Bristol Park subdivision, lost everything in their home and also their two cars. While the stories of heartbreak and heroism continue to be shared, I thought I'd share my families story, too.

On Tuesday evening I was watching the news nonstop. My hometown of Pensacola, Florida, experiencing yet another disaster. The worry increased and I continued to message back and forth with my mom and sister. All the sudden, around midnight I get a picture from mom that was water coming into the sunroom. My sister, Jamie, calls 911 to get help to them. And we wait to hear back from mom...and we wait some more. My mom and Carlos were trying to put their belongings as high as they could get them. In the end, that didn't matter. Nothing could be done because the water was flooding in so quickly. The last we heard from my mom was at 2:30am.



The rescue boats couldn't get to them and water was up to my mother's chest. She thought she was going to drown. As Bristol Park subdivision was completely submerged and families were fighting for their lives, heroism was being done. Neighbors were getting out and rescuing families as best they could. That is ulitmately how my mom and Carlos got out alive; a neighbor came to save them and took them to their second story of their house. All single story homes were gone. There was no time to save anything but themselves. Imagine watching everything you own get distroyed and at the end, being helpless to anything but trying to fight for your own life.



The boat the saved mom and Carlos from their front porch:



Our story is like many in Bristol Park neighborhood and the adjacent neighborhoods. We, like many, DO NOT HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE!! They live in a NO FLOOD ZONE and over 20 years in this house and have endured many, MANY hurricanes and nothing like this has happened before.

I ask today that you open your hearts to my family. They need help more than ever before. We are so blessed to be alive, healthy and together as a family. We are humbled by the love and  support we have been given by so many.

Many thanks for anything you can spare. We appreciate you more than we will ever be able to express with words.

With love from their children,
Autumn Coleman
Jamie Lomardo
Amber Hartley
John Baxley
Michelle Anderson

Mom & Carlos in what used to be the living room:


More pictures of what's left of The Baxley home: