Emergency managers tour Fall River flood damage
Andrea Medeiros
There may be some relief on the way for dozens of business owners struggling to stay open after this month's floods. Emergency managers toured the damage in Fall River, Tuesday.
“Believe it or not,” said business owner Laurie Mullen, “I know it looks pretty bad now, but I'm seeing progress here. I think it looks darn good compared to what it was.”
Just a couple days ago, lawyer Laurie didn't have any floors or walls. The first floor of her Fall River business was destroyed by heavy rains and flash floods.
Signs of that flooding, three weeks ago, still at Laurie business. Her office is one of a hundred stops on a tour the Red Cross and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency is doing.
They're assessing damage and trying to get grants for people like Laurie, who saw what took them decades to build get destroyed in a matter of minutes.
“It was very upsetting to see basically 20 years of my work here floating around on the first floor and a lot of disturbing images,” said Laurie.
“We're going to do everything we can to make sure these property owners who were affected have the resources needed to get their lives back to normal,” said Mayor Will Flanagan.
Laurie's life is starting to get there. Construction is going on now where the water was once waist high. But that doesn't help with the cost of all this, which is 100–thousand dollars. That's where she's hoping MEMA will help.
