Moving Forward Update #10

Dear Friends,
 
Join us for St. Michael and All Angels worship and fellowship tomorrow morning, at Peace Lutheran Church, 15840 McGregor Blvd, Fort Myers on Sunday, October 9 at 11:30am, followed by fellowship and an update in their Good Samaritan Hall .  Some of the staff and I met via zoom with Rev. Andreas Stein and he could not have been more gracious and excited to welcome us to their facility.  Please spread the word about tomorrow! 

Because more people now have internet access, I encourage you to go to the website and review the past daily Moving Forward Updates with lots of important information and resources for you, including the link where you can view last night's all parish zoom gathering.
 
Photos of the damage done to the church buildings are available on our website, https://www.saintmichaels-sanibel.org/hurricane-ian.  But no storm could damage the church of St. Michael and All Angels- the people. As more people are visiting the island to inspect their homes and business, please remember that no one should visit the campus, try to enter the building or do any cleanup. It is imperative for the claims process that the special disaster team from Church Insurance be the first ones to do initial clean up to access the buildings, determine if the structures can be safely entered, and then be the first ones to enter. We know many people are ready to help, and there will definitely be a time to do so, but please allow the insurance team and church leadership to do their initial assessment which will hopefully be in the next few days.   

TEMPORARY HOUSING. If you HAVE a spare room in your home, please provide you Name, Address, contact email and cell number and size of space and number of persons you can accommodate. Also, please state whether you will allow pets and how you feel about smokers. If you NEED temp housing, Please state your name, contact email and cell, the number of people in your group and approximately what your anticipated length of stay. (We realize that this will be difficult to estimate, but best guess will. Be fine.). Please email to :deblarsonrealestate@gmail.com or please text to : 703-966-9474 

Hurricane Relief Fund  Please spread the word on the fund – www.saintmichaels-sanibel.org Checks can be made out to St. Michael's Hurricane Relief Fund and mailed to Susan Gonzalez's home at 10436 Peso Del Rio Drive, Fort Myers, FL 33908 

 
Resources: (please know Sue adds new resources every day after the Sanibel city briefing, we really encourage you to watch them by going to the City of Sanibel FaceBook page. They are starting at 5pm. They share a wealth of information and you can watch it after the fact as well. The City of Sanibel continues to provide updates about the City's response to Hurricane Ian via Facebook Live. Click here to watch the live feed. The Facebook Live update will stream at 5:00pm today, Saturday, October 8. Please be advised a Facebook account is not necessary to view the live update. To watch Facebook Live without creating a Facebook account, go to https://www.facebook.com/live.
 
1. Several agencies and resources are set up at the Lake Library at 15290 Bass Road, open 9-6 daily. Lee County has set up a 1 stop location for many entities to assist you as well as the FEMA Disaster center.  You can also go to leegov.com/storm as well. 
2. Starting tomorrow you can operate a vehicle that is already on the island, but you cannot bring a vehicle to the island by any means and there is no gas and you must have a hurricane pass hanging from the rear window.
3. Amazing progress is being made on the causeway and with utilities. 
 4. Contractors can begin arriving by private barges on Monday to work on mitigation efforts on homes, not demo or reconstruction, under certain restrictions that will be announced tomorrow. They cannot use the public docks. 
 5. From the City of Sanibel: 
Earlier today, FEMA issued a lengthy news release detailing the federal assistance to Hurricane Ian survivors since the federal disaster declaration. The various forms of assistance include temporary housing; essential home repairs; and other uninsured and underinsured disaster-related losses.
 
Among the key messages are the following:
 
FEMA will pay hotel and motel costs for eligible survivors from counties hardest hit by Hurricane Ian. Yesterday, FEMA and the state of Florida activated the Transitional Shelter Assistance Program, providing eligible support for survivors in Charlotte, Collier, DeSoto, Flagler, Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Lake, Lee, Manatee, Orange, Osceola, Pinellas, Polk, Putnam, Sarasota, Seminole, St. Johns and Volusia counties. FEMA makes these payments directly to participating hotel and motels in Alabama, Florida and Georgia that provide emergency shelter to survivors.
 
FEMA and its state partners are now operating five Disaster Recovery Centers across the state. Centers are open in Collier, Charlotte and Sarasota counties, with two centers operating in Lee County. More centers are planned to open over the next few days. Centers are accessible offices staffed by state, federal and volunteer organizations that let everyone access recovery information. As centers are added, real-time locations will be updated at FloridaDisaster.org
 
Disaster Unemployment Assistance is available to eligible survivors. Floridians should file a claim for loss of income caused by Hurricane Ian by going to Disaster Unemployment Assistance – FloridaJobs.org and selecting “Apply for Hurricane Ian DUA,” visiting a local CareerSource Career Center, or calling 800-385-3920. Customer service representatives are available Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET.
 
Operation Blue Roof is a free service to homeowners and is currently operating in Charlotte, Collier, Desoto, Lee and Sarasota counties. Residents impacted by Hurricane Ian can sign up at BlueRoof.us or call toll-free at 1-888-ROOF-BLU (1-888-766-3258) for more information. The call center will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
 
National Flood Insurance Program Florida policyholders who had flood damage from the hurricane now have a 90-day window to renew their policies. The extension applies to policies with renewal dates beginning Aug. 25 through Oct. 23. Policyholders whose policy renewal date is in this range should contact their agent or insurance company. FEMA also extended the proof of loss requirement for flood insurance policyholders in Florida who suffered flood damage from Hurricane Ian from 60 to 365 days. 

To read the full press release from FEMA, click here.
If you are in town, hope to see you tomorrow at Peace Lutheran!
 
Peace, Bill+