After months of living with severe roof and ceiling damage, Jessica Reid-Lynk and her Westmount, N.S., family have finally been told repairs to their home caused by post-tropical storm Fiona will come soon.
"I'm overwhelmed. My anxiety has gone down just a little bit,” Reid-Lynk told CTV Atlantic.
Reid-Lynk and her husband Thomas appealed for help through insurance and the Nova Scotia government.
Now, it's a Mennonite relief group who will renovate their home in March.
The couple and their two young children will be out of their house for two to three months.
"It's a lot worse than we originally thought,” Reid-Lynk said. “There is mold starting in our basement because of water damages, but we're going to pack up. We're going to move to my mom's for a bit."
The United Way of Cape Breton says the Mennonites will be back in the Sydney area Mar. 12 to make more permanent fixes, after making a lot of temporary home repairs in the fall.
For now, the United Way still has people living in hotels because their homes are uninhabitable.
"Quite a few of them have had significant water damage on the interior,” said executive director Lynne McCarron. “So while they've done temporary roofs, walls need to be torn out. Ceilings need to be torn out. Floors need to be torn out and all replaced."
Meanwhile, McCarron said roofing contractors in the local area have been run off their feet making repairs.
"Insurance claims and all of that have kept roofing companies quite busy,” she said. “It's been very difficult to do anything since the Mennonites left."
With Friday’s deadline to apply for disaster financial assistance approaching, Nova Scotia's minister of housing and municipal affairs said the province's storm response has already cost more than $40 million.
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"We did something for food, for tree removal, for those who were out of their homes, for seniors,” said John Lohr. “We've got a generator program that was very well-subscribed. So we've done a lot."
Lohr added he expects his department will receive some last minute applications for assistance.
"We have more than 1,200 applications now. We know we'll get a few more between now and tomorrow,” he said Thursday.
Reid-Lynk said while she understands the government has been overwhelmed by an unprecedented amount of damage following Fiona, she has mixed feelings about the fact that a charitable group that will fix her home.
"It's a little disappointing that somebody from British Columbia came and was talking to us about it, when our government is only in Halifax,” she said, adding that she and her family are grateful to the Mennonite group and United Way of Cape Breton for their help.
The United Way said the Mennonites will be in the Sydney area for six or seven months.
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