Edgewood residents hopeful on assistance following historic flooding
FORT LAUDERDALE - The Edgewood neighborhood is no longer submerged by water but a lot of the homes in the neighborhood are shells of what they used to be.
In Amir Thompsons home, fans are still soaking up the moisture left behind from April's historic floods.
In Thompson's home there was over two feet of water inside and three and a half feet outside.
He is now living out of his rental vehicle.
"My expenses have tripled between car rentals, airbnbs. I've been sleeping in the car just to save money," Thompson said.
Thompson is a professional chef and he's out over $50,000 because his commercial kitchen equipment at his home is unusable thanks to the floods.
That's on top of daily expenses.
Monica Courthiade just renovated her home, two months before the historic flooding.
Now, she's having to reconstruct it all over again.
"We had to take from four feet down to the floor, everything, and all the walls," she said
Courthiade spent over $300,000 in renovations, but the floods gutted her project bringing with it 19 inches of water.
"I have flood insurance, and they only gave me $15,000 for the drying when the drying is $38,000."
She hasn't gotten that check yet.
Both Courthiade and Thompson said the drainage in their neighborhood is a problem they want to see fixed.
The process with FEMA, they say, is long, and they don't have straight answers.
"It's just like a long unnecessary process. Just help people and that's it," said Thompson.
They are hopeful they can get assistance so they can get their lives back on track.