Roswell rises — part 3

Stories of resilience, recovery and fighting “slumlords” In the first two parts of “Roswell rises,” we shared eyewitness accounts from victims, stories of survival and volunteers who were on the ground during the flood that hit the town without warning on the night of Oct. 19. Today, we continue the series with the story of how one woman can make a difference.

Lisa Berry — in need of angels Lisa Berry’s family roots lay deep in the Pecos Valley, her ancestors being pioneers in the early days of Dexter and Roswell. When the flood hit Roswell, Berry was in Albuquerque. Returning in the aftermath of the flood, it was shocking for Berry to see what had happened.



She counted herself lucky that her home was saved, but the home of a friend, just a few houses away from her, was flooded. On a sunny fall day, Berry sat down to tell her story on how she got involved in Roswell’s recovery. “Let’s have the interview outside; the inside is full of boxes and stuff,” she said.

Those boxes and “stuff” are donated items, food, sanitary items and even furniture that her friends brought to her to bring to the displaced victims of the flood in motels or in homes they are trying to clean and restore. Asked how she became involved in helping, Berry said, “The first thing that happened was these girls. They were my tamale supply.

I noticed on their page (on Facebook) that they were trying to raise money for a new bed because they had lost everything. And so I reached out to them. I bought the rest of the tamales that they had.

And then I reached out and said, ‘OK, tell me what's really going on? I want to know everything.’ ..

. So anyway, they told me what was going on. And so I started helping them, and then they wanted to help other people, so we started making food for whoever needed it, and we were doing things like putting it on Facebook.

‘We have breakfast burritos; we have this; we have that,’ you know. ‘Who’s hungry?’ They were doing most of the work. I was in charge of most of the communication online, things like that.

But we were cooking and delivering about 65 burritos a day, plus usually a meal in the evenings to an individual family. And that just kind of snowballed into different people being brought into my life through either a Facebook post like that, or someone that I know, or someone that reaches out and wants to help, but they actually have just as big a need because they were affected too.” Brushing off her own organizational talent, Berry said that she was in awe of the many people who were affected by the flood and other disasters that are just wanting to help other people.

One family needed a place to stay. “..

. The third family that I tried to help, I ended up taking them in for about four and a half days, and it was the mom and the dad and three of their kids, and they don't have a car, so they can't be with their oldest child. He has to live with her mother, because otherwise he can't get to and from school.

So I mean things like that that just really break your heart,” Berry said. Other experiences made Berry furious on behalf of the flood survivors — she said she no longer calls them victims. “(There are) some very bad landlords, some slum lords, things that I've been coming into contact with and have referred to the appropriate people.

So there's some involvement with the State's Attorney General, and what I found is, just for the most part, that the families that are struggling the most were the families that were already struggling. And they have no voice. No one believes them.

...

A whole lot of people are ashamed, embarrassed to ask for help,” Berry said. She said that others may not be considered destitute, but they too suffered great loss. An acquaintance of hers is in his late 70s.

When he paid off his home, his insurance company told him that he wouldn’t need flood coverage anymore. “He lost everything but his two cars that were fully insured," she said. When one family left, another moved in with Berry, and the pattern is repeating, and the need is as acute as ever.

She said that she understands when people who were not impacted in the flood but have large houses are leery to take people in. “I know it can be scary. I know it takes a leap of faith.

But, you know, I really need assistance. I need angels. I need people who are going to show up and put their money where their mouth is, or put their time or their energy in,” she said.

At the time, Berry was doing a shout-out on Facebook, looking for people and a truck who could bring furniture to a family in need. Juliana Halvorson responded, promising to contact the New Mexico Youth ChalleNGe to help. Berry said that though she has connections, dealing with federal or state assistance is a complicated and lengthy procedure.

“It’s just, you know, hurry up and wait. So I've been relying solely, really, on Facebook and friends and people that know me. I have striven all my life to be a woman of substance, and I have seen it pay off in this circumstance, in that I didn't have to start a GoFundMe.

” With more and more families approaching her, Berry said that she does need help now. “I have finally started to delegate, because I'm now close to a dozen families that I'm managing on my own, and I have some in hotels, and I have some, you know, (in) different places. .

.. But with one car and one person, even though the girls helped me a lot, it’s more than I can do just myself,” she said.

Asked about details of what she needs, Berry said, “If you can cook a meal, ...

I can have someone else pick it up and take it to a family, you know. They’re struggling, even the ones that I've been able to get into hotels. .

..(On) some nights they only have ramen for everybody.

And part of that is the difficulty in some of the families from this community getting the information they need for who is delivering meals now; some of those things have ended already. Free ride on the bus has ended, which I would like to see reversed. I don't have any understanding of that.

We are still buried in the difficulty of all of the loss. And we already know there's a shortage of housing. We already know there's a shortage of, you know, rentable apartments.

We already know that there are some landlords that were receiving money from HUD for some of these families that are still taking the rent even though the buildings are uninhabitable. So there are a lot of issues at play here. It really breaks my heart to hear about people who are trying to profit off of other people's tragedy, but they're out there, and the only way that we can do anything about it is to call a spade a spade, and I have no fear of that.

Like I said, I don't work for anybody. I don't have any position. I have nothing to lose, and I don't mind people who are not the right kind of people having a problem with me.

...

” For more information, call Berry at 505-903-2523 or find her on Facebook. She has turned her profile public. Best trending stories from the week.

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