" I don't know what to do" says Sokong Poy, looking around the ruins of her market, with it's floors covered with soaked ceiling tiles and ruined food.
Fall River —A Cambodian couple and parents of four children, ages 3 to 14, said they lost their livelihood and much of what they’ve worked for when their ethnic market was flooded with water damage from an early morning fire in the apartments above them Friday in the Flint area.
“Everything’s ruined,” said a despondent Sokong Poy, her legs and rubber flip-flops soaked as she and Hoeun Touch put packaged mackerel and fried mud fish and cans of chicken broth, sardines and condensed milk out of their modest store onto the sidewalk.
The couple immigrated with their families to Rhode Island in the late 1980s and has been together since 1995.
Six years ago they opened Soriya Market. It means sunshine in Cambodian and is the name of their 9-year-old daughter. Their other children are boys, and the unmarried couple owns a home in Cranston.
The children attend the Cranston public schools, the oldest starting high school and a son and daughter in elementary school.
“I’ve saved up like almost 20 years,” said Poy. She’d worked for 17 years in a jewelry factory, her companion for nearly that long as a maintenance worker and at a second job in a restaurant.
Most of their market products are damaged beyond resale. The loss is estimated at around $50,000.
“They work very hard. They’ve been good tenants. They always pay their rent,” their landlord David Corville said.
Standing in the market doorway at the corner of Pleasant and Rocliffe streets as fire crews continued to mop up at about 10 a.m., some eight hours after the fire started, they explained that without insurance or any bank account funds they are stuck.
Poy tugged on her black T-shirt to emphasize when she had few possessions and said, “I’ve got nothing at all. It’s like when I came to the United States. I don’t have one cent in the bank.”
The couple said all of their goods are paid for.
“We depend on the business. We live day to day,” she said.
She estimated the store brings in $1,500 to $2,000 a week. But that goes to pay store rent and expenses, their home mortgage, car loan and living costs.
The Red Cross could not help them, they said, because it’s their store and not their home that’s been badly damaged. Their store had been a Southeast Asian market before called Psar Leu, and a small sign from the previous store remains above the doorway.
The market is open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to handle customers largely from about 1,000 Cambodian families and others from Southeast Asian countries living in Fall River. It sells fish and meat, fresh produce, packaged and canned goods and more. The couple works it alone.
About midday Friday, Corville said he’d offered them his slightly smaller store next door at 1090 Pleasant St. He had it ready to rent to someone else but offered it to the couple because of their loss, he said.
“I hope they can make it work. It will be a struggle for them,” he said. “They put everything into their store, and now it’s kind of gone.”
“We would like to do that,” Poy, 40, said of reopening. “Right now we don’t have the money to do that.”
They’re hoping members of the community can help them to recoup their merchandise. They live at 331 Doric Ave. Cranston, R.I.
Touch, who is 41, said they are thinking about how to reopen their market. “I have to find a job to work now,” he said, to pay the bills.
“Everything’s ruined,” said a despondent Sokong Poy, her legs and rubber flip-flops soaked as she and Hoeun Touch put packaged mackerel and fried mud fish and cans of chicken broth, sardines and condensed milk out of their modest store onto the sidewalk.
The couple immigrated with their families to Rhode Island in the late 1980s and has been together since 1995.
Six years ago they opened Soriya Market. It means sunshine in Cambodian and is the name of their 9-year-old daughter. Their other children are boys, and the unmarried couple owns a home in Cranston.
The children attend the Cranston public schools, the oldest starting high school and a son and daughter in elementary school.
“I’ve saved up like almost 20 years,” said Poy. She’d worked for 17 years in a jewelry factory, her companion for nearly that long as a maintenance worker and at a second job in a restaurant.
Most of their market products are damaged beyond resale. The loss is estimated at around $50,000.
“They work very hard. They’ve been good tenants. They always pay their rent,” their landlord David Corville said.
Standing in the market doorway at the corner of Pleasant and Rocliffe streets as fire crews continued to mop up at about 10 a.m., some eight hours after the fire started, they explained that without insurance or any bank account funds they are stuck.
Poy tugged on her black T-shirt to emphasize when she had few possessions and said, “I’ve got nothing at all. It’s like when I came to the United States. I don’t have one cent in the bank.”
The couple said all of their goods are paid for.
“We depend on the business. We live day to day,” she said.
She estimated the store brings in $1,500 to $2,000 a week. But that goes to pay store rent and expenses, their home mortgage, car loan and living costs.
The Red Cross could not help them, they said, because it’s their store and not their home that’s been badly damaged. Their store had been a Southeast Asian market before called Psar Leu, and a small sign from the previous store remains above the doorway.
The market is open seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. to handle customers largely from about 1,000 Cambodian families and others from Southeast Asian countries living in Fall River. It sells fish and meat, fresh produce, packaged and canned goods and more. The couple works it alone.
About midday Friday, Corville said he’d offered them his slightly smaller store next door at 1090 Pleasant St. He had it ready to rent to someone else but offered it to the couple because of their loss, he said.
“I hope they can make it work. It will be a struggle for them,” he said. “They put everything into their store, and now it’s kind of gone.”
“We would like to do that,” Poy, 40, said of reopening. “Right now we don’t have the money to do that.”
They’re hoping members of the community can help them to recoup their merchandise. They live at 331 Doric Ave. Cranston, R.I.
Touch, who is 41, said they are thinking about how to reopen their market. “I have to find a job to work now,” he said, to pay the bills.
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.
1 comment:
This should help:
Are You Disaster Ready? (hurricane, tornado, earthquake, flood, fire, etc.)
What do you expect in case of an insured loss? Who cares?
www.disasterprepared.net/monitor.html
Post a Comment