by Mary performs
August 14, 2025
‘We’re not FEMA, we’re simply brothers from Milwaukee.’
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has declared a state of emergency after torrential weekend rains brought about what consultants are calling a “1,000-year flood” throughout southeastern Wisconsin, overwhelming Milwaukee’s water programs and leaving houses submerged.
The tragedy has introduced collectively a bunch of group males to volunteer with cleansing up.
As reported by WUWM, for residents like Crystal Trigg and Valerie Raspberry in Milwaukee’s Lincoln Park neighborhood, the flooding was worse than something they’d seen earlier than. “It’s a lake or a river,” Trigg mentioned. “It’s a lake with no fish.”
After they referred to as the town’s 211 hotline, the ladies acquired nowhere. “I needed to Google the appropriate web site,” Raspberry mentioned. “So I put my info on the web site and no one has contacted me but.”
Whereas many Milwaukee residents struggled to search out assist, Montreal Cain, whose personal basement was swamped, took initiative. “I acquired a name from my pastor round 7 within the morning saying, ‘Hey, church is canceled,’” Cain recalled. “For me, church is a full workday, so my physique was able to work.”
Cain chronicled his work on Fb Stay. That impressed others like Aziz Abdullah to hitch in. The 20-plus volunteers shaped an off-the-cuff crew to pump out basements, take away ruined property, and examine on susceptible neighbors.
“I stroll (into folks’s houses) and persons are like, ‘Oh, FEMA is right here!’ And it’s like, we’re not FEMA, we’re simply brothers from Milwaukee,” Cain mentioned.
Abdullah described one dwelling the place floodwaters reached chest-high. A mom there, cautious of opening her doorways to strangers, finally welcomed them in. “I imply considered one of my guys drove down from Eau Claire and had three children. She made them a pizza,” Abdullah mentioned. “After some time it’s like we all know new folks in Milwaukee.”
By later within the week, the volunteers had been serving to Trigg, Raspberry and their neighbors. “And now I can breathe…I can see I’m gonna get to the top of the tunnel,” Raspberry mentioned. “I can see it now. However, at first, I had no hope.”
Abdullah and Cain at the moment are a part of a coalition of grassroots leaders—together with Vaun Mays of the Neighborhood Process Power —who organized a GoFundMe marketing campaign to rally group help for these FEMA-like teams serving to Wisconsin recuperate.
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