Frank Fundraiser Update

Frank had a chance to go home to New Orleans and survey the damage on his home. I’ve requested a list of items needed and a guesstimate of what insurance won’t cover so we can start raising money and sending things needed.

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By Holly

Novelist, writing teacher, on a mission to reprint my out-of-print books and indie-publish my new ones.

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FrankA

17 years ago

We are very lucky to live in Gretna, a â€™burb of New Orleans that is protected by a different levee system than the one that broke in the city. We suffered from zero flooding. None at all. That is the big difference between the ‘West Bank’ and the ‘East Bank’ of the greater New Orleans area.

The actual city of New Orleans is on the East Bank (actually to the north of the river, but “east of the Mississippi”) and that is where everything fell apart.

The Gretna Police and Fire departments did a truly amazing job of stopping looting. Those heroes have been working 20 hour days, catching naps in their cars, sleeping in homes without water or electricity for two weeks. The National Guard is now giving them a break. They were amazing and I intend to do something to thank them when Gretna is back up and running.

All of you have been fantastic. Thank you so very, very much. It is wonderful to know that I am part of such a wonderful community of people.

Cheers,
— F

PolarBear

17 years ago

Thats wonderful news, Frank and Gretchen. So happy for you. Wish I were in San Antonio. 🙁

Holly

Author

17 years ago

Received the following e-mail from Frank, with very good news:

Greetings everyone,

We are just back from Gretna, with my family in San Antonio, and I am happy to
report that our home took minimal damage. We lost 27 roofing shingles and the vent cover over our attic fan. Some rain came in making a lot of water marks
on the ceiling, the fridge was beyond salvaging and had to be taken to the curb, but that’s it for the house. We lost the fence in the back yard, big tree limbs down, but even damage in the yard is minimal.

I am doubly happy to report that FoxFeathers survived the ordeal with minimal damage. A palm-sized section of the hull took a blow from a downed tree limb and will need to be repaired, but that’s the worse of it. I’ll have a sailboat after all.

Gretchen’s residency program is relocating to Baton Rouge for a few months. We will be temporarily sheltered on a cruise boat docked in Baton Rouge so she can work. The good news is that they won’t charge us very much rent and eventually (January or so) Children?s Hospital in NOLA will be back up and running. We are giving a big sigh of relief that she still has a job and a paycheck and we don’t have to relocate to another city for her to finish.

Now that we are ok on a material basis as well as a life and limb basis, the
stress is much lighter. For the next few weeks we will be in Colorado staying
with Gretchen’s parents. You can reach me at this email address.

Further updates will be posted to my blog comments section at http://www.fobrienandrew.com/soap

THANK YOU so much to everyone that offered assistance. There are others that need it more than we do. We will be ok, others have truly lost everything.

Cheers,

— F

I had things put aside for the Frank/Gretchen fundraiser, but I’ll be pitching those into the Larissa Ione fundraiser instead.

zette

17 years ago

As soon as things are worked out, I intend to start a fund raiser at FM for Frank. I’ve been watching here, his blog, and FM for word. I would like a PayPal link that goes directly to him, but I realize that might not be possible if he’s not prepared for it.

I can’t even imagine how horrible this must be. I have gone through one flood that destroyed about half of what I owned, and another one nearly destroyed my parent’s house. But in those cases the floods mostly disappeared soon after they came. It took days to pump the water out of my parent’s basement. It was completely filled. With those memories and all the piles of ruined ‘things’ I can only try to imagine how awful this is.

PolarBear

17 years ago

Oh, tambo, delicious! I’ll be looking for that one.

tambo

17 years ago

I have an ARC for Threads I’m happy to donate to the Frank Fundraiser, along with whatever else I can.