BELLINGHAM, Wash. — The construction work continued throughout Bellingham on Thursday, a race to rebuild after a bomb cyclone barreled through the area back in November.
“A lot of the homes out there still have the damage,” says resident Aaron Noice. “[They] still are waiting for repairs.”
Noice is one of the homeowners left in limbo after a Douglas Fir tree fell onto his home, creating extensive damage. Noice and his wife are now living in a rental property as their rebuilding continues.
“They said 12 to 18 months when it started. And definitely looking at, I think, that 18 months for it to all be said and done, and hopefully us to be back in the house,” says Noice.
KIRO 7 reached out to several local contractors, some of whom had been inundated with work since the storm hit.
“The phone calls started coming in,” recalls Gherman Ketrovski with Zion Builders. Their home renovation and repair company has a waitlist that exceeds four months.
“It’s absolutely devasting to see what the storm brings. It rips people’s lives completely apart for the time being, but luckily we can restore them,” says Ketrovski.
Though for many families KIRO 7 spoke with, the holdup isn’t just in the rebuild. It’s in the insurance coverage — or lack thereof. And, whether they can afford to rebuild.
“Redoing all the electrical, the kitchen work, all that stuff — that’s where the bulk of that cost is going to end up popping up. So that’s been kind of sitting on the back of our minds as well, because it’s how much can we save right now during this process,” says Noice.
The financial and emotional toll remains heavy, even three months since the storm.
A GoFundMe page was created to help Noice and his family after the storm.
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