Helping the Lucianos Get Back on Their Feet

Posted on | May 29, 2015 | No Comments

SMC is helping a disaster recovery group share the news of the ongoing work and successes it is having in aiding those impacted by the 2013 flood in Colorado.

UMCOR coordinates labor, resources to ensure Milliken, CO family has a safe, healthy home

Milliken, Colorado, a Weld County town of a few thousand, sits six miles east of I-25 on Colorado Highway 60. A number of local streams, the Big Thompson, Little Thompson and South Platte Rivers, and several irrigation ditches that serve the surrounding land run around and through the community.

Normally, those ditches and tributaries are a lifeline for those in this high plains agricultural area; but during the September 2013 deluge, the floodwaters flowing through them left their banks. Rivers changed course, disrupted lives, and destroyed property. For many Milliken residents, including those living in the 33-unit Evergreen Mobile Home Park, life was challenging enough. Then the flood washed away what little they had.

Andrea Luciano and her family – her mother, young sister, and three daughters – were already struggling. Andrea, a single mom, cares for her three children and infant sister while her mother, also a single parent, works to support the household. When the flood came, their home of five to six years, along with the homes of most of their neighbors in the vulnerable, low-income community, sustained significant damage.

“The biggest problem was that park residents were evacuated, and were not allowed back in for at least 10 days,” notes UMCOR Case Manager Melinda Ciricillo. That was at least in part due to safety concerns over the property, which sits in the flood plain, along with the fact that the three rivers made every bridge in town impassable, isolating all of Milliken for four to five days. “Some of the homes were moved around by the water, some were completely destroyed, and while Andrea’s stayed put, it had a lot of water that got in and just sat there.” What was left when the water receded was ruins – soaked flooring, walls, furniture, personal possessions – and the mold that inevitably followed.

The family also faced other challenges. Evergreen Mobile Home Park and the adjacent Martin Family Trailer Park provide the only low-income living situation in Milliken, where some residents have lived for 40 years. 35 homes in the two parks were destroyed, and eight were severely damaged. 200 people were evacuated, and the parks’ residents scrambled to find temporary housing of any kind. One large family was housed by the town in its new, not-yet-opened museum.

The change in the adjacent river’s course changed the floodplain itself, and their mobile home was old enough that moving it was not an option. The town considered buying the land where these homes were and turning it into a public park, without adding any other affordable housing options, and struggled to balance long-term safety and short-term disaster recovery needs. It would ultimately take four months for them to get back into their home. Emotions flared and tempers ran short.

“It really left them in limbo. They lost everything, and were facing tremendous uncertainty.” On top of all that, the family had to split up. Andrea and her three daughters found temporary living space, while Andrea’s mother and infant sister had to find separate accommodations.

“There had been a lot of activity in the immediate aftermath of the flood,” Melinda recalls. “They received some FEMA funds. In some cases they were not eligible for certain programs or funds. Volunteers came soon after the flood to muck out and clean the unit and do some repairs. She was very grateful to have the help she got; but it was clear much of the work had not been done by experienced folks. It was fine, it was safe, but it wasn’t finished.”

The result was a serviceable but incomplete living situation. Trim was missing and drywall unfinished, leaving gaps and seams that were tempting for the young Luciano children to poke, pick, and pull at. Andrea, meanwhile, was not aware that there were any other sources of assistance available to her.

That’s when a neighbor, an older gentleman who was also one of Ciricillo’s clients, stepped in. The man, who Ciricillo describes as “a patriarch of the community” told the family to contact Ciricillo through Weld Recovers to see if the UMCOR team could help.

Ciricillo opened a new case file for Andrea, and brought in Project Manager Larry Glover to visit the home and make an initial assessment. The Salvation Army, which was very active in Milliken during the early phases of the recovery process, provided just over $400 in funding for the materials needed to get the home where Glover wanted it to be. Volunteer Coordinator Deb Campbell went to work finding volunteer groups that could go to work helping the Lucianos’ lives return to normal.

Glover had noticed, during his initial walk-through, that the toilet lacked a seat, which stuck with him. “I didn’t feel right about that with the little girls living there,” he said. Later in the week, he brought and installed a new seat for them as a Christmas gift. In an odd series of events involving the theft, replacement, and return of a Christmas tree in front of a burger restaurant that was near the Weld Recovers office, Ciricillo got the family the Christmas tree the Luciano children were longing for.

The Watermark Mission team arrived from Wisconsin to tackle the long list of work, and then some. “They really went the extra mile,” notes Ciricillo. “They found that the stairs, for example, while functional, but wobbly. Even though they were serviceable, Watermark volunteers were concerned about the kids using them. Even though it was not on the work order, they took it upon themselves to fix them to make them as sturdy, solid, and long-lasting as they could be.”

One crew was on site working before Christmas, and the family was making tamales as part of their Christmas meal. The Lucianos sent all of them away when the day’s work was done with a bag of fresh tamales.

“The Watermark team made a strong connection with the family,” Campbell notes. “They worked a total of 162 hours on the Luciano home.” Another task where they went above and beyond, she adds, was in replacing the door to the furnace closet. “It had been damaged and removed, and the opening was an odd size since it was in a mobile home. We didn’t have the budget to order a special size as a replacement. The Watermark team brainstormed and designed a cover out of leftover paneling, and they used that to secure the closet from tiny, curious children, while allowing access to the furnace.”

That left most things done, and a clear, short list of tasks remaining to make the Luciano residence whole once more. A volunteer team from Sunrise UMC in Colorado Springs, a church community that has played a big role in helping Northern Colorado recover from the 2013 flood, will finish that work this June, in just a couple of weeks when they make yet another trek north along the Front Range to help Northern Colorado flood victims.

“There is some additional work to be done on the exterior of the home,” notes Ciricillo. There’s some siding to be completed, and the whole home needs a coat of paint.” Andrea is picking out colors, and Melinda is optimistic that that the Weld Recovers Unmet Needs Committee will provide the $450 to purchase the paint and supplies. Sunrise UMC volunteers will then happily apply it, and, quite literally, put the finishing touches on

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