Shibuya Streets

The past month has been very busy for me. I've been exhausted most of the time and have only been home in the evenings. That said there are some (very short) highlights.
 
I've been playing a lot of Lego City: Undercover for the Wii U... I wonder just how good that game is?
 
The Rayman challenges app on the Wii U is a lot of fun too.
 
I got to hang out in NYC with my boyfriend and an awesome friend yesterday. My legs hurt from all the walking.
 
Iron Man 3 is awesome go watch it.
 
As for life things... still nothing new on the house front and we can't fix things until the insurance company gives us money. And we can't accept the small offers they have given us as you can't fix a house with the numbers they are offering and ahhhhhh.
 
Free Comic book day brought us free comics.
 
The project Aleks and I are working on now has a mascot character and I am so excited for it.
 
Jedi Master J is an awesome friend and one of the coolest people ever.
 
Also it is my Birthday and this month feels good. This month feels good to me.

Guyssss there is a Wifi access point that says this:
 
 ┓┏ 凵 =╱⊿┌┬┐
 
I'm scared
 
I
 
Don't
 
Know
 
Where
 
I
 
Am

Yay, it is time for a Hurricane Sandy update. Unfortunately that is where the good news pretty much ends. As you all know we’ve applied for FEMA and for insurance. Insurance is one huge argument that we are dealing with and they are only covering the house Aleks and I live in. FEMA will also only cover us for that one house.
 
We have nothing coming in for the house that Aleks’ grandfather lives in. This is the main reason we are raising money and have been to a handful of town meetings to get the Town of Hempstead to actually apply for federal help. Overall the town has been pretty useless. Hopefully we can get some change going on.
 
The main issue right now is in regards to FEMA. They pay for rental assistance which allows us to a have a roof over our head. Or at least they are supposed to be paying for that, but they are fighting and being difficult and at one point they had the gall to say we didn’t have any damage from water. The tons of photographic evidence we have disagrees with that.
 
Needless to say FEMA has only paid out for 1 month plus security deposit. We’ve managed to scrape by as we hope for a payout but things are getting very dangerous and close to when rent needs to be paid. We have been on the phone constantly trying to make things happen but…. Things are getting close. We are still asking for donations to help, once FEMA does come through donations will continue to be used for Aleks’ grandfather’s house.
 
We are still working on getting permits to actually have his house torn down. The town and various organizations we need permits from have been very difficult to work with in this regard. The town can actually make a lot of money off it if they tear it down themselves and charge us.
 
The ripout has been done on our house however no progress can be made for rebuilding until we can find out what money will be available to us.
 
Once again and continuing from earlier we are asking for donation of anything to help us. Thank you very much!
 
-Joseph

So as a few people know my mother went into the hospital a few weeks back. It wasn't very good and we were all worried.
 
Her condition got a lot better and as of today she is in a really good nursing home.
 
During that period I asked a friend known as Cammiluna(she has an awesome webcomic and is an all around awesome person) to make an image that I could print out and send to my mother.
 
I chose a theme of the Legend of Zelda because my mother got me into Zelda. It was something we bonded over. And ages ago she could be the original game in about 2 hours. The Legend of Zelda created a special connection for us.
 
Here is the amazing work of art she created.
 
Thanks Cammiluna!
 
I can also report that she loved it.

Here have a gif of our Sugar Gliders going after our cat:
 

 
Gallery for a few more images.
 
I’ve owed you all an update on this for awhile. We got the final ripout of our house done and… well it is freaking depressing.

We also have heaters and dehumidifiers to try and dry the place out, but with the weather how it is, they aren’t very effective. We are trying to save the subfloor, but I’m not sure if we can. We are also working on permits and so much more information about programs to get money. We also want to try to get the house raised to prevent this from happening again.

So yeah, not much can happen because it is winter, hence the lack of updates.

Once again, we ask that if you can, please donate to help us here.
 

 
This explains a lot.

First off, we are still looking for donations as we were hit hard by Hurricane Sandy.
 
Second off, a ton of channels and networks are airing the concert, you can make a donation to the Robin Hood Relief Fund on the official website and you can watch the concert at the link as well.
 
Thirdly, do not donate to the American Red Cross. The millions that they have received has only gone to watered down stew. They have like no blankets and we know from a friend who volunteered that they actually said no to giving away a blanket. Not to mention the Red Cross takes 9% of every donation for themselves. They are in my opinion horrible. Due to the fact that we have been devastated by Hurricane Sandy we have seen how utterly useless and horrible their service has been.

So, we've been in the process of getting a permit to take down the small bungalow. It hasn't been pleasant.
 
It should have been an easy process, yet at each turn the town keeps throwing new things at us. The house doesn't have asbestos or any other hazardous materials yet we are being given a run around on it. >_<
 
The bureaucracy of it all sucks.
 
I would like to also take a small moment here to thank Jedi Master J. or VI. Zexion (as he is currently called) for his sheer amount of donations, it seriously does help and he has gone above and beyond and we are extremely grateful. Thank you!
 
As always, anyone who wishes to help donate can do so here. You can say you helped fund the tearing down of a house! (Eventually >_>)

So, having internet back has been great. However when the hurricane hit we all forgot about something we ordered and paid for.

We forgot until it arrived at a house that we can't live at as we were continuing the clean up. So we set it up at our rental house and finally had some rest and relaxation for the first time since Hurricane Sandy hit.

I must say, the Wii U has been a ton of much needed fun for us. (If anyone wants to add me on Miiverse my username is Kohakuchan)

Other than that, Aleks' grandfather's van has been taken away by a scrapper. The house is still there as securing permits has taken longer than everyone thought.

Everyday has been a bit better than the last, but honestly... at the end of each day we just want to go home. Today though has been a day with no running around and just some simple relaxation. It has been nice and much needed.

So, I've got some updates.

Aleks' grandfather's house is going to be torn down probably tomorrow. This is a job that will cost probably around $10,000. That house didn't have insurance and FEMA isn't giving a dime for it. We do need help paying for this as we don't have the money for it.

If the town were to take it down though it would cost probably $50,000.  Which would be very bad.

I must continue my plea for help in terms of donations to help tear it down. If you can't donate, please spread the word about this.

In terms of how donations are being used:

1. Donations will only be used to replace essential items lost by the hurricane, they will be used for repairs and for in some cases demolition. All donations will be receipted.

2. Not only will there be a receipt, but each one will be put into a receipt book and logged with the information on each donation.

3. Any donations that are left over will be used to help neighbors in the area.

Those are the basics on it, I don't have a degree in legalese so this will have to do for now. If you have any questions please send me a message.

I do have good news and will be able to give updates now as we do have internet back!

(Gallery is up here! Donations can be sent here! The images are huge and have not been resized. I am limiting the amount of images for now while we deal with the insurance company and FEMA(who hasn't really been helpful, neither has the Red Cross.) Due to power issues with the nor'easter I'm not direct linking too many images at the moment. More images might be uploaded later too.)

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy our house suffered a large amount of damage. Things are really difficult at the moment. Gas is hard to come by and food is so much more expensive after the hurricane.

The extent of the damage to our house is great. Everything on the first floor that survived Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene, did not survive Sandy.

All of the furniture is a complete loss, such as the couch and table, the refrigerator which we got this year was tipped onto its back and is currently laying on the new pots and pans we got after Irene. Our stove was about 20 days old, we just got it. It had water in the top of it. The air conditioner which was on top of the table was on the floor. The water made the entire thing float.

This isn’t even mentioning the food. All of the food in the house (about two months worth) is garbage. Trash.
That isn’t even the worst of it. We are lucky the house didn’t explode as we weren’t able to turn off the gas to the house. The house has shifted on its foundation by a few inches and there are some major cracks in the foundation. All of this has to be repaired. I’m not even at the worst part yet.

Aleks’ grandfather lived next door. His house lifted up with the surge and floated. All of the lawn furniture and even the lawn mower have been crushed by the house. His electric wheelchair is gone. Everything in that house is gone. Everything. He is 83 years old and he lost everything.

The house is so bad that we can’t even enter it. The fire department checked it out during the storm and even the local police know about it.

His house is so badly damaged that it was condemned.

There was a boat in the front yard and a paddle boat in the back yard. The entire boat yard floated and is blocking one of the streets. Not to mention the two downed trees on that street. We can’t even get trucks down to our road.

Our neighbors have it very bad too. This is how things look all over our street.

The sad thing is, FEMA has been very slow with their response. They were quick with Irene. The Red Cross is apparently here but we haven’t seen them at all. Everytime we’ve seen the national guard… they’ve just been standing around! This is chaos.

The devastation is really bad and we don’t really know what to do. The insurance deductible because it was a Hurricane is $20,000 which is money we don’t have. We don’t know how much we will get from FEMA nor do we know of other ways to get some help for the costs.

Aleks grandfather’s house has to be torn down and we can’t afford that. The damage is far too extensive for us this time. Irene we recovered from ourselves. Hurricane Sandy… we cannot recover from.

Sadly, I have to ask for donations to help. This damage is too great and far too bad. Anything would help us. I’ve opened my paypal for direct donations as the way it looks we might not even see the Red Cross. At this point I don’t know how things will turn out. Things feel pretty hopeless right now.

Anything you can give would be a huge help. Anything that would be left over would go towards helping our neighbors recover too.

Please donate to us here.

Thank you all so much for the help.

Joseph Miller / Kohaku

just want to say that we are okay. no power though.

I'll give a better update when I can

Hurricane Sandy is on like a direct path to us. Don't expect much in terms of posting.

I really don't want to deal with this again. I can't stand this stuff. We still aren't fully back online from Tropical Storm Irene last year!

I do want to say I love you guys ;_;

Here is hoping for the best.

I was bullied as a kid, I don't want others to go through the same thing. It sucks and it leads to depression and even suicidal thoughts.

I'm going purple and you are free to join me.

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Any insensitive comments of any kind towards anyone shall not be tolerated. Especially not today.

Kohaku