Hurricane Zeta recovery eludes Coast family who lost house to oak. ‘It was a nightmare.’
As a new hurricane season begins, Dedra Cuevas is still without a home for her and her three children because of Hurricane Zeta seven months ago.
They are living in Pass Christian with her parents, next door to the house they lost when an oak tree crashed through the center while they scrambled for their lives during Zeta on the night of Oct. 28.
Cuevas and her mother were trapped on one side of the wreckage, her children on the other.
For heart-stopping minutes that felt like a lifetime, Cuevas did not know if her children, cowering in a hallway, had survived.
Their five-bedroom house was declared a total loss. Without insurance for repairs, Cuevas turned to the United Way of South Mississippi.
Their case was approved for long-term disaster recovery assistance through a network of nonprofits that aim to restore the homes of low-income residents whose needs will otherwise be unmet.
The leaders of those organizations now say funds are almost tapped out and they desperately need donations for 128 remaining cases, including a rebuild of the Cuevas home.
They are anxious to complete repairs as the 2021 hurricane season begins. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says chances are 60% that 2021 will be an above-normal season but will not match the record-breaking 2020 season. Hurricane season starts Tuesday and runs through Nov. 30.
The Gulf Coast Community Foundation, which helps fund disaster recovery and other charitable causes, has a reserve fund for hurricane repairs for the 2021 season, said CEO Rodger Wilder.
But volunteers and funds are low for Zeta repairs, nonprofit leaders say, because of disaster fatigue and a lack of awareness about just how much damage Zeta left on the Mississippi Coast.
“It’s been fairly expensive and we’re about to run out of money,” Wilder said.
“There could be people with leaky roofs that we won’t be able to repair and people whose homes were destroyed that we can’t help.”
Zeta upgraded to Category 3
On May 10, the National Hurricane Center upgraded Zeta to a major Category 3 hurricane at landfall near Cocodrie, Louisiana. The updated NHC tropical cyclone report said the most extreme damage in South Mississippi appeared to be in Harrison County.
Only one tornado was reported, the NHC report says, in Noxubee County, in east-central Mississippi.
Still, during the hurricane, Cuevas heard what sounded like a tornado’s roar as the family sheltered in their living room. She urged her children into the hallway, but knew her mom wouldn’t be able to make it. They moved in the opposite direction, cowering against a living room wall.
Then the oak tree crashed down, the trunk falling into the center of the house and a branch taking out a bedroom. Cuevas was frantic to know if her children were OK.
“It was a nightmare,” she said. “It was dark. Because of the wind and the rain, I couldn’t hear them and they couldn’t hear me.”
She screamed out a window, “Are y’all OK?” she said. “We heard one of them say, ‘We OK.’ “
She said the children climbed out a window while she and her mother squeezed through a door near part of the mature oak’s trunk.
The family was devastated. Ten years ago, Cuevas had moved with her children after a divorce back into the home where she grew up.
They had painstakingly renovated each room of the old house as time and money allowed. They had only the kitchen left to complete. Her insurance had been canceled long before Zeta, she said, and she couldn’t money for insurance payments.
The Cuevas family moved in with her parents next door. In the year of COVID-19 and quarantines, they had no wireless service, so her children had to do their school work at the homes of relatives or in places they could find internet hot spots.
“We’ve had COVID, too,” said Cuevas, who works as a surgical technician at a local hospital. “It’s been a journey.”
Despite the obstacles, both her daughters, 16-year-old Daydria and 10-year-old Dristalyn, finished school on the honor roll. Earlier in 2020, Daydria was named to the Sun Herald’s All-South Mississippi Girls Basketball Team for the 2019-20 season.
Son Darrian, 19, who had helped with renovations before Zeta hit, is a student at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.”
Dedra Cuevas sought help from FEMA but received no assistance for rebuilding. She called the United Way of South Mississippi, where she learned about the hurricane relief fund and qualified for help.
Recovery funds for Zeta running low
The Gulf Coast Community Foundation has contributed $650,000 to the fund, with $200,000 for building materials from the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, $48,000 from the United Way and $100,000 from the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
Catholic Charities is providing case-management services valued at up to $300,000 and $200,000 for expenses, while Back Bay Mission is repairing 12 homes and Habitat for Humanity coordinates contractor repairs.
Jerry Schmuck of the Knights of Columbus, who has worked on disaster recovery projects for years, volunteered as construction coordinator.
He said skilled construction crews have been hard to find.
“We need skilled labor and if we get volunteer skilled labor, so much the better,” Schmuck said.
He said enough money is left in the recovery fund to repair about 30 more roofs.
“We’re going to have about 40 people we can’t help with roofs, let alone materials,” he said.
More donations will be needed to take on big jobs such as the Cuevas house and interior repairs for many homes.
Cuevas hopes the Longterm Recovery Committee can help her family. Every time they walk out the door of her parent’s house, they see the ruin of the home where they almost died.
“I feel like their hands are just tied as far as not having the resources to help people,” she said. “They keep in touch with me and let me know I haven’t been forgotten, which has been good because sometimes you do feel like you’ve been forgotten or lost in the paperwork somewhere.”
How to help
You can contribute online to Hurricane Zeta relief through the United Way of South Mississippi or mail a donation designated for Hurricane Zeta recovery to the Gulf Coast Community Foundation at 11975 Seaway Road, Suite B-150, Gulfport, 39503.
To volunteer skilled construction crews for restoration work, call the Gulf Coast Community Foundation during business hours at 228-897-4841.
This story was originally published June 1, 2021 at 5:50 AM.
