MIAMI – Keke Salley stays at school after hours most of the time. She helps parents of low-income students watch their kids while they are at work.
“They always thank me for helping them,” said Salley, who was on the other end of the range for the first time.
“Now, not only do the kids need help, but the teachers do as well,” Salley said as she walked through her wet Fort Lauderdale home. She said that the front of her house was already flooded on Tuesday night, almost a half day before parts of Broward County were hit by the worst flooding in history.
CBS Miami asked Salley, “What do you need?” as she told them how high the water got in her house and what was broken. She doesn’t often hear that question.
“We need a dresser,” she said with a sigh. we need two more beds… We need to get a new couch… My mother is trying to save as much as possible as quickly as she can.
It was a race against time for many people in Broward County who lived in flooded areas. Some have flood protection while others don’t.
“We have many more cases like this,” CBS Miami said. Heather Siskind is the CEO of the center where Keke works as a teacher, Jack and Jill.
“We have two more people who are in trouble and need help right now,” said Siskind. “This list is very long, and it includes both people we help and people who work for us.” The number of calls for help has tripled compared to when there were no floods. “We don’t have enough money to help our families in the way we need to.”
Katy Meagher from Neighbors4Neighbors is repeating the word. She is the CEO of an organization that helps people in need and works directly with CBS Miami.
Meagher said of government help, “There isn’t money set aside for something like this. This isn’t a hurricane, so this isn’t one of those things where the usual resources come into play.” She said again that insurance is the only help for those who have been hurt.
Salley doesn’t have renters’ insurance, and a week after her house flooded, there is already a smell in the house. “We’ve tried to talk to our owner about this problem, but no one has gotten back to us.
We couldn’t just wait for the listing people to come fix it up, so we took it upon ourselves to fix as much as we could, and we haven’t stopped.”
In this time of trouble, Salley and the center where she works for Jack and Jill need help from the community.
People who want to make a change in this teacher’s life can give by going to the Neighbors 4 Neighbors area.
