IMMOKALEE, Fla. Hurricane Irma teared through an Immokalee family’s home, leaving them with a damaged roof and mold growing on their walls.
But the Garcia family says they have a special case, one of their children has down syndrome. But, according to the Garcia family, FEMA said they don’t qualify for help.
Maria Garcia said her family first started noticing the mold growing in their house two days after Hurricane Irma hit. But, the 19-year-old’s biggest concern is her 4-year-old brother Ricky, who has special needs.
“It’s bad for everybody because we can’t breathe it in, but it’s worse for him if he’s breathing it in because he can get pneumonia,” Garcia said.
After Hurricane Irma hit, the family lost power for two weeks, according to Garcia. She said that because of the power outage, her little brother wasn’t able to use proper machines to help him breathe clean air.
There is a blue tarp covering the entire roof, prompting the family to reach out to FEMA.
“FEMA had came inside the house and saw everything, and saw the pictures we showed before and said no,” Garcia said.
Garcia says FEMA wanted them to leave the house, but her family has no where else to go.
“They wanted us to leave the house in order from them to help us, but we don’t have anywhere to go. They didn’t offer us any shelter,” Garcia said. “We told them we have a down syndrome baby but they said, ‘oh, we didn’t ask for that’.”
The family has received donations such as air conditioning units from their southwest Florida neighbors. But, it is FEMA they hoped would help them cover the cost of the damaged roof.
“I know people that applied and I went to their house and their damage wasn’t as bad as mine and they got accepted,” Garcia said.
The Garcia family are now planning on putting their own money into fixing the roof, which they say is going to cost them thousands of dollars.