Local Furniture Maker Seeks Support To Restore Homes Of Hurricane Otto Victims In Costa Rica

SANTA BARBARA, Costa Rica - Dec. 1, 2016 - PRLog -- When Hurricane Otto touched ground in Upala, Costa Rica it destroyed homes and devastated families. Many families lost everything they own to the flood waters. One local company, a furniture maker in the Central Valley, would like to help replace some of the bigger things they lost.

The Red Cross of Costa Rica collected donations for the affected communities from all around the country. Food, clothing, and personal items began flooding into Upala, but for many of the families there was no where to put these donations other than on the floor.

In the days that followed the hurricane the streets of Upala were filled with beds, cabinets, sofas and more that were ruined in the disaster. Custom Furniture Costa Rica, a small family business, has some big plans to build new furniture for these families.

The following slideshow contains photos that were taken in the streets of Upala during the weekend of Nov. 26, 2016, while families were still assessing the damage and emptying the water-soaked and ruined items from their homes. http://www.slideshare.net/MimiMudd/furniture-ruined-by-hu...



Custom Furniture Costa Rica has launched a GoFundMe campaign (https://www.gofundme.com/restore-homes-hit-by-hurricane-otto) to provide the families in Upala with some of the essential furniture they need. Included in the campaign updates are the designs they propose to make.

In one of the poorer areas of Upala that was heavily flooded many of the homes were made by the government and have the same design. These homes have small bedrooms that do not include built-in closets and kitchens that do not have enough space for cabinets and countertops.

These are the homes, or families rather, that Custom Furniture Costa Rica intends to build furniture for. The proposed furniture designs, including a compact closet, small kitchen pantry, and compact beds, were made to work within the space limitations of the standard government houses.

As of the time of this writing the campaign had raised one-fourth of the funds needed to provide the first furniture delivery to Upala. Their hope is to begin delivering new furniture to the hurricane victims after the first of the year.