Senator Donnelly visits South Bend neighborhood devastated by historic flood

Senator Joe Donnelly spent time in one South Bend neighborhood that was severely affected by the historic flooding on August 15. 

There are more than 700 families that suffered from flood damages. And Nicole Coleman's family is one of them. 

The army veteran, her children, and her fiance just moved into their new home in June.  But because of the heavy flooding, they are not able to live there right now. Coleman says it's heartbreaking.

"We saved up all of our money we could and put our down payment on and this is our first house together," says Coleman.

Damage repairs will be expensive, and they won't be able to get an estimate on how much, until the house is cleaned up and deemed safe.

But some of the losses are irreplaceable. "All my kids' baby pictures were down there," Coleman says. "All my military stuff was down there." 

Donnelly stressed that the most important thing, is to help one another out.  He says, "This is one team, working for everybody who's here because these are our friends, these are our neighbors, these are the folks we go to church with."

He acknowledged the difficult time for the community.  He urged people to let officials and agencies know if and when they're in need of assistance.  Help can be found through the St. Joseph County Emergency Management Agency at 574.235.9378.