{"id":450,"date":"2016-11-18T21:52:08","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T21:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/?p=450"},"modified":"2017-01-11T22:44:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T22:44:59","slug":"four-families-are-still-figuring-out-how-to-start-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/2016\/11\/18\/four-families-are-still-figuring-out-how-to-start-over\/","title":{"rendered":"A Year After The Tornadoes, Four Families Struggle To Start Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

The decorations were still up when a dozen tornadoes ripped through North Texas the day after Christmas in 2015. People lost loved ones, their homes and everything inside them.<\/em><\/p>\n

As the holidays approach, we are checking in with four families who have watched the last 11 months blur by in a haze of insurance claims, building permits and financial stress. They’re still struggling to rebuild their lives, a year later.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
Lindsay Diaz of Rowlett<\/h5>\n

Some people returned from holiday trips to gutted apartments and gashed houses. Some families rode out the storm in their closet. The Christmas weekend tornadoes changed thousands of lives forever.<\/p>\n

Lindsay Diaz will never forget hunkering down with her then-infant son in the bathtub of her Rowlett duplex and then emerging to a home she no longer recognized.<\/p>\n

\"Lindsay

Lindsay Diaz and her then 7-month-old son, Arian, in their Rowlett home after the tornado. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEverything was broken, windows shattered, everything off the wall,” she said.<\/p>\n

Diaz had homeowners’ insurance but not enough of it. She\u2019s been displaced since the day of the storm, moving into\u00a0two different rentals in less than a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m homeless,” she said. “I don\u2019t have a home and I need to figure out what I\u2019m going to do to get it back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Losing a home is more painful than some people realize, experts say. Social worker Valencia Alexander manages the senior services program for the city of Dallas and helped with counseling in the wake of the tornadoes. She says the stress of moving \u2014 even temporarily \u2014 can be crushing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI now have to find financial resources to restart my life,” Diaz says. “I lost the things that were important to me. Can I really trust moving into another environment? Where do I find a place that\u2019s safe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Revisit Linday Diaz’s story from earlier this year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Jessica Cadick of Garland<\/h5>\n

Jessica Cadick, her fianc\u00e9 and their three kids were renting a house that was destroyed in Garland. Speaking a few months after the storm, she said her family was desperate to get back to normal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving that light, that hope at the end of the tunnel that we\u2019re going to get to go back home,” she said. “It may not look exactly like the house that we had, but it\u2019s going to be the same floor plan. It\u2019s going to have some of the same architectural details to it. I\u2019ll recognize it again, and that\u2019s a comfort. Knowing that I\u2019ll get to go someone that I\u2019ll recognize as a safe place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jessica

Jessica Cadick, and two of her children at their Garland home, one of the first to be rebuilt in the neighborhood, following the storm. Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

Their house was one of the first on the block to start construction. But progress slowed during the spring. They hope to be moved back in soon. Valencia Alexander says even having to leave a rental property can cause pain and resentment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who\u2019s kind of moved from a place they\u2019ve been in for awhile and go back and they look and say \u2018Wow this had a lot of memories for me,\u2019 and I was forced to move versus choosing to move,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Revisit Jessica Cadick’s story from earlier this year<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve earned it \u2014 I should have a little bit of peace. I think I\u2019m still a little uneasy, because it\u2019s always you have that feeling: ‘OK, what\u2019s next.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Anderson, Garland<\/div>
<\/div><\/div>\n
Jennifer Anderson of Garland<\/h5>\n

Single mom Jennifer Anderson, who lost an apartment full of furniture, clothes and toys for her two sons, has re-settled in a Garland rental house. It\u2019s got a small backyard and a bedroom for the boys. Even so, she can\u2019t help but worry about the next crisis on the horizon. She lost her husband to suicide two years before\u00a0the tornado.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve earned it \u2014 I should have a little bit of peace,” she said. “I think I\u2019m still a little uneasy, because it\u2019s always you have that feeling: ‘OK, what\u2019s next.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Revisit Jennifer Anderson’s story from earlier this year<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Jenn

Jenn Anderson and her sons eat in their motel room. Photo\/Thorne Anderson<\/p><\/div>\n

Anthony and Alfredo Fowler-Rainone of Rowlett<\/h5>\n

And after eight months of construction, the home of Anthony and Alfredo Fowler-Rainone is finally finished. Pictures are back on the wall; crystal is back in the cabinets. And while they didn\u2019t have enough insurance money to replace everything they lost, they\u2019re just glad to leave the process behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the furnishings, we just continue using what\u2019s been damaged until we can replace it,\u201d Anthony said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no way to even get it through anybody\u2019s head how stressful this is,\u201d Alfredo said.<\/p>\n

\"Anthony

Anthony Fowler-Rainone of Rowlett looks into a hole in the bathroom ceiling that caved in when his home was damaged in the tornadoes in December 2015.\u00a0Photo\/Lara Solt<\/p><\/div>\n

That\u2019s something Valencia Alexander hears a lot. Even folks with enough\u00a0insurance find the process of getting everything evaluated and reimbursed exhausting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re also dealing with a loss,” she said. “So they\u2019re dealing with their own hurts while yet fighting for their rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fight that started the day of the storm and has lasted for months and could for even years as they\u00a0try to rebuild their lives, one brick at a time.<\/p>\n

Revisit the Anthony and Alfredo Fowler-Rainone’s story from earlier this year<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The decorations were still up when a dozen tornadoes ripped…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"audio","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-audio","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-one-crisis-away-rebuilding-a-life","tag-one-crisis-away","post_format-post-format-audio","byline-courtney-collins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":478,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/478"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.kera.org\/rebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}