Hello, I'm Mara Williamson, and on Sunday July 2nd the city of Chicago flooded, and even though I maintained clear drainage, the sewers flowed up into my basement, putting almost two feet of water in my house. After contacting both my insurance and the city, neither will cover any of the damages. I have lost a significant amount of important items, both personal as well as major building appliances. The flooding was up to my knees, took out all of my appliances that were in the water to some degree, as well as a significant amount of personal items that were only temporarily down there while my ex was moving out, which was happening the same day and time as the flooding. The damages are starting to total up to a very high cost to move forward. I'm needing to replace furniture, fix major appliances, figure out a new electrical line problem, replace my basement door, and restore some of the lost items for my woodshop and mushroom growing equipment. I just got hot water working again after being out for almost a week, and hopefully I can get the furnace back online soon to get a/c going again. I am not even going to ask for help to replace the personal items, as there’s no real way to replace a copy of a book you’ve had since you were 8 years old, or copies of the magazine you worked on in the early ‘00s. I lost most of my books (including almost all of my tabletop rpg book collection which would have been hundreds of volumes alone), and a significant chunk of my video game, film, and art collection. I suffer daily from intense C-PTSD, which results in general anxiety and depression, as well as regular panic attacks. For the past week I've been nearly debilitated with panic attacks, anxiety & depression, as well as the sadness from mourning the loss of my relationship and these physical memories. I’ve suffered with this most of my life to the point that doing many regular tasks can be nearly impossible for me to accomplish. For the past five years I have been recommended to get a psychiatric service dog, and just two months ago finally started the process of training a service animal for myself, which has been difficult and expensive, but I thought my finances would be more stable. This process is estimated to cost between $5k-$10k over 18-24 months more than normal puppy/dog costs, as I am not a trainer, and will have to hire them. Now this thing that is supposed to help me (a service animal) has made my issues worse as I face the unknown of my finances with this flooding. On top of all this the house I bought turned out to be a major lemon. While it was “completely renovated” right before I purchased it, many things were done incorrectly, and some major issues were hidden: The largest item was that the main beam for the house had sunk, and needed to be raised as the house was falling in on itself. The only reason that this was brought to my attention was because the contractor found it while working on the brick wall on the east side of my house that was/is falling over. Not to mention the only reason I found out the wall was falling over was a contractor noticed while they were fixing incorrectly removed chimney stacks that were hidden in the roof. In total I have already spent over $15,000 this year from my savings to stop my house from sinking and falling over. I could not have expected so much bad luck to keep happening. The devastation of the flooding has made it feel impossible to move forward now. I still have roof work, gutter work, and brick work that is causing major issues with the house, which the remainder of my savings had been set aside for (over $6,000 in remaining work), not to mention dog training and any possible other emergencies that may come up. With all that in mind I have put together a list of the work and replacement items I’m seeking help with. These costs are based both on work paid, estimates from contractors, and basic pricing: --Major Appliances/Repairs Hot water heaters $1,400 Basement Door Replacement: Approx $750 (need to completely reframe the whole thing) Furnace $TBD Dryer $TBD Electrical problem: $TBD --Furniture (Approx $950) 2 vintage lounge chairs from the 70s: approx $400 Collapsing dining table vintage: approx $200 6 dining room chairs: approx $200 Large steamer chest vintage: $150 --Mushroom Growing supplies: (Approx $925) Laminar flow hood filter: approx $450 Sterilization supplies: approx $250 Grains: 200lbs, approx $75 Growing substrate: 350lbs, approx $150 --Tools/Wood shop items: ($1040) Air compressor: $180 Air compressor tools: $250 Trimmer (sting): $150 Multitool: $100 Hammer drill: $130 Angle grinder: $130 Batteries/Charger: $100 Subtotal (not including TBD work): $5,065 Many of the “approx” prices are on the low-middle end of cost, and I have already gotten an estimate on the door replacement, as well as had the hot water heaters fixed. While there are still items I haven't even tested yet and am hoping drys out, the above listed are the known major items needing replacement/fixing that are dead or can not have the smell of sewer removed from them. I don’t know what kind of help to expect for this, I know these numbers are high, I just hope to get a little boost to move forward through what I really consider to be one of the hardest events of my life. Not only did I lose things I’ve had for over 30 years, and my relationship with my ex, but I've also accumulated repair costs that I can not afford. In the past I have used both my woodshop as well as mushroom gardening to make extra money, and that is why I asked for those items mainly to help me get future money to cover the rest of the items I will still need to fix. As you can probably tell, I’m in over my head with all this. Between panic attacks and intense depression, I have spent a week dealing with hauling wet, feces stinking memories out of my basement and out to the alley, and calling contractors to try to fix the myriad issues. I'm tire, sore, and I’ve cried more than I thought possible. Heck, I cry at the drop of a hat right now. Anything you can do to help will start putting me in the right direction not only to recover from this, but towards a stronger and better future for myself that I am hopefully cultivating. It is not easy to ask for money, so please understand I do this at my most humble. Thank you.
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