I spoke with a homeowner whose house was flooded in North Dakota during the flood which occurred nearly a month ago. I remember watching the videos of the victims on top of cars and houses and couldn’t imagine the amount of fear they felt that day. Jerome, the homeowner I talked to, had a slight tremble to his voice after I expressed my empathy toward his disaster. Luckily, North Dakota residents like Jerome are moving forward and focusing on the positive aftermath to help them through the recovery and clean up.

Instead of elaborating on the disaster, Jerome wanted to talk about all the help the state and federal government were providing and how he learned from his disaster experience. He said FEMA has been a blessing and provided a temporary mobile home for him to stay in, in his own backyard. Not only does he have the comfort of being close to home, he is able to supervise the work while the repairs get started. Jerome could not stop expressing thanks for the help and hope which was offered by the government and my conversation with him made me feel a little more confident about our federal and state disaster assistance.

Jerome also talked about how it was a learning experience for the community to review their disaster insurance and make sure the policy includes flood insurance. It’s important to understand that flood insurance is not just for your home, but can be obtained for your car as well.

Despite the disaster and the thousands of dollars of damage, it is nice to know that homeowners like Jerome have the ability to see the rainbow after the rain. His strength, hope and positivity are going to help him, his family and probably even his neighbors through their journey to recovery.

If you live in a high-flood area, be sure to print our flooding checklist, Preparing Your Home for Disaster: Flooding.

Emma Marshall is a community resource guide at the ServiceMagic.com headquarters in Golden, Colorado. Emma speaks with dozens of homeowners about their projects on a daily basis.