Fremont overwhelmed with donations, but facing long road to recovery

Nearly every inch of space at the Fremont City Auditorium is overrun with items.

Cleaning supplies, clothes, baby items, and food.

Hundreds of volunteers have been working around the clock to organize and distribute items to families in need.

“You’ve got even these families here that are displaced and their homes are flooded yet they’re coming down here ad volunteering it’s people helping people,” Jason Chicoine, the volunteer coordinator of the distribution, said.

Chicoine said the outpouring of support to help those affected by flooding has been overwhelming.

Even still the grim reality of the situation has only begun to sink in.

The south side of Fremont remains underwater and inaccessible.

The majority of people living in that area are Hispanic and most don’t speak English.

“For us it’s been really hard because we’re all one big family and hearing from the families I’ve just been hearing that they’ve been displaced from their homes and it’s been very tragic because they’ve lost everything,” Jazmine Hernandz, a volunteer translator, said.

Hernandz has been working as a translator for families for three days and says many have nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

The uncertainty of when they’ll be able to return home to begin rebuilding has been difficult, but the outpouring of love, donations, and volunteers has lifted the community’s spirits.

“Honestly we do feel loved, that’s the biggest thing the love that’s spreading throughout our community,” Hernandz said.

It’s that love that keeps this community going as they begin to heal and rebuild.

If you want to help the City is still in need of baby items- food, diapers, and formula, shovels, cleaning supplies, mucking boots, and food. 

Donations can be dropped of at several locations throughout Lincoln including Christ Lincoln Church at 44th and Sumner and the Red Cross.