Please help out our cousin, a disabled, 44-year-old father of three, out of homelessness caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton:

The date is September 26th, 2024. Hurricane Helene, a category 4 storm with sustained winds of 140 mph and storm surges reaching 18 feet, reaches Florida. In Largo, Florida, Chris was a cook, a father to 3 children, and lived in a flat he shared with his then-girlfriend, whatsername. Due to the strength of the hurricane, his home flooded and was destroyed, along with his belongings not only getting ruined but also stolen. He received notice to flee to the shelter as Helene rolled in. Unfortunately, his time at the shelter was rough. Because of the influx of people also losing their homes and belongings, there were no beds there. He was forced to sleep on the ground or outside and even faced police brutality at the shelter. In fact, when he was sleeping on the ground outside the shelter waiting to go in, he was awakened by a power-hungry police officer kicking him in the stomach repeatedly, telling him to move out of the way. While this was going on, Chris’s girlfriend, whatsername, cowardly left him, completely abandoning him at his lowest. She also decided to steal his remaining belongings he had asked her to hold onto, which they agreed he was getting back. Chris provided for both of them, so this completely blindsided him. The shock is unnerving. How could one be so cruel? While dealing with another loss in his life, Chris kept his job as a cook while in the shelter, thankful that he at least had that. Because he lost his house right after paying rent and not getting so many hours of work, he was running out of money. He wasn’t able to keep his hygiene and appearance up to par with his job’s expectations, which his boss complained about, not considering that he had lost everything at this point because of the hurricane and whatsername, or that he was walking from a shelter in freaking Florida humidity, after getting trampled by Helene. While he was getting hassled by his job, a second hurricane hit Florida, leaving even more destruction and catastrophe than before. It was Hurricane Milton.

On the day Milton hit, while walking from work, Chris accidentally scratched his leg on a fence, and if you can imagine getting cut by a piece of metal that has touched sewage water, flood water, car oil, and more, there was no way it would just be a regular cut. One day the cut was fine, the next day it looked like a bug bite, and the day after that it was swollen to three times the original size! Though Milton’s destruction passed over Chris’ area of Largo, while staying in the shelter, the cut continued to swell and burn and he was later diagnosed at the hospital with a flesh-eating bacterial infection called Necrotizing Fasciitis. For those who don’t know about the severity of this specific type of infection, if the infection reached his bone, which it very well could’ve, part of his leg would’ve had to be amputated. Since first being admitted to the hospital, he’s had 8 surgeries to remove the necrotic tissue and put skin grafts to replace the missing tissue. While he was on his way to the hospital, he unfortunately got fired, much like many disabled folks in the South. Because he’s missing a huge chunk of his leg, it’s been hard to move around, so he’s been doing physical therapy since Thanksgiving. What a terrible way to spend his holidays! As of now, he must keep his leg covered at all times to avoid any more infections or hiccups. In between him being in the shelter and in the hospital, the shelter “lost” his remaining stuff, and right now he only has a suitcase and a small backpack worth of things to his name, which is from the very few people he has in the area to help him out, which is more like a couple of people, unfortunately. He’s supposed to get out of the hospital by the end of this month, but he needs financial assistance for basic needs and a place to stay, because at the end of February, he ran out of his savings. This situation has been hard for his kids as well, knowing he’s in this state, not knowing if he’d live or die, and not being able to see their father so much because of the distance. To fix what has been broken by natural disasters, our lazy government, and whatsername, Chris’s goals are to get a job as soon as possible, get rehabilitated, get a place to live, a vehicle to transport himself and family, go back to being a dad, and ultimately rebuild his life with a more worthy woman who wants to be a wife. He is not on disability and receiving no assistance at this time. His State medical is being renewed every month.

ALL donations are appreciated, so please, share with your friends, family, coworkers, and anybody else you know who would be willing to help a white dad out. There is no white guy-dad fund. And FEMA doesn’t help people enough to actually help. Every dollar would make a difference. Thank you and God Bless