Spring flood victims get help from Omaha World-Herald's Goodfellows; campaign begins today

“I got up and there was water on the floor and it was (making a sound) in the fan,” she said. “It was already flowing over my whole foot and was coming in fast. It got up to about my knee.”

She roused her 3-year-old daughter and started gathering everything they needed to leave — clothes, keys, other essentials.

“I didn’t know if it was going to stop,” she said.

It didn’t. She went to a friend’s house and returned to the Grandridge apartment complex near 99th and Fort Streets the next morning to find the patio door gone and her apartment essentially destroyed.

“It was trashed,” she said. “Everything from the bedroom was in the kitchen. The refrigerator was tipped over. I didn’t know how to feel. It was just a numbing pain.”

Tilson and her daughter were among 20 families at Grandridge displaced by flooding from a large spring storm on May 21. They all had no idea what to do next.

That was when Goodfellows, a charity founded by The World-Herald, came into play. Goodfellows is more than 130 years old and, until a few years ago, was operated by World-Herald employees. Since 2020, it has been administered in collaboration with United Way of the Midlands.

The annual Goodfellows holiday fundraising campaign begins today, and United Way President and CEO Shawna Forsberg said the story of Tilson and her fellow tenants illustrates the importance of Goodfellows’ efforts.

“It’s an amazing example as to why Goodfellows is so critical to supporting families when they need it,” she said.

Goodfellows offers one-time emergency aid to Nebraska and Iowa families who are struggling to pay for housing, utility bills, car repairs or other urgent needs. It also distributes vouchers for holiday meals.

It partners with several Omaha nonprofit agencies, including Family Housing Advisory Services, the Heart Ministry Center, Visiting Nurses Association, Together Inc., the Omaha Housing Authority, Food Bank for the Heartland, Youth Emergency Services and Heartland Family Service.

Forsberg said every tenant of the 20 Grandridge apartments that were damaged received help from Goodfellows. They applied for aid through United Way’s 211 Hotline.

“We worked in concert with the owners of the apartment complex to make sure we knew exactly who needed help,” she said. “In many cases, we were able to get them their funds in 24 to 48 hours.”

The days after the flood were harrowing for Tilson. At one point, the water in her apartment was 5 feet deep, covering part of hanging pictures and all of her daughter’s bed. It got up to the TV, which was mounted on the wall.

The apartment management company arranged for displaced tenants to stay on the floor at nearby Morton Middle School and worked to find other spots in the complex for them, but Tilson decided to stay with relatives.

She was juggling work as an administrative assistant, care for her child and the search for a new apartment, sometimes visiting several places in one day. In the middle of it all, her car transmission gave out.

She also returned to Grandridge frequently, because representatives from several nonprofits were there to talk about resources.

That’s how she found out about Goodfellows, and she received $1,000 to replace mattresses for her and her daughter.

“That helped a lot,” she said.

Another agency paid the deposit on her new apartment in northwest Omaha.

Forsberg said she was thrilled that Goodfellows could help. She also praised city officials, notably City Council member Aimee Melton, for quickly providing information about who needed what help.

Like Tilson, she said, many, if not most, of the flood victims were single parents.

“They were doing everything they could to raise their families and this was devastating for them,” Forsberg said. “If they didn’t have rental insurance, there weren’t a lot of resources available to them. This is an example of how beautiful the community of Omaha really is.”

Six months later, Tilson says she’s doing OK, though she still feels like she’s working to get things to return to normal. She said she was sad that all of her resources were going to pay bills so she couldn’t replace her daughter’s toys, but then friends and family provided lots of them on the girl’s third birthday.

“I feel comfortable and happy where I am at. I love the apartment. We both have our own rooms now,” she said. “I was close to giving up — I felt like I was at rock bottom — but the only way to go was up.”