After Eddie Saman pretty much lost everything he owned to Superstorm Sandy, generous do-gooders stepped forward to donate some basic necessities. But the down-and-out salesman never had the chance to relish his new items. A fire claimed it all on Sunday.
“Maybe God doesn’t want me to be here,” Saman, an immigrant from Egypt who has no family in the U.S., told the New York Post. “It’s very overwhelming.
Sandy flooded the Staten Islander’s home with eight feet of water, claimed his furniture and left him without heat or electricity, the paper reports. Though Saman has homeowner’s insurance, he was denied flood insurance because he lives so close to the water, according to the New York Post.
"I have nowhere else to go,” Saman told silive.com. Now it's all gone."
When Sal Barcia, a volunteer EMT, saw the 47-year-old sleeping on a piece of plywood and struggling with his asthma, he knew he had to take action.
“When I laid in my bed, I thought I was being greedy,” Barcia told The Huffington Post. “Right away, I knew I could do something to at least make him feel comfortable.”
Barcia posted a video of Saman’s ravaged home on Saturday to Facebook, which quickly went viral, inspiring locals to deliver some basics -- including a mattress and couch.
But on Sunday night, after Saman turned on his wood-burning stove to try and warm up, his frigid cottage caught on fire, ABC reports. He quickly escaped, but all of his new possessions were charred, leaving him, again, with nothing.
But one of Sandy’s most tried victims remains optimistic and grateful for everything generous donors have and continue to bring him.
“I have hope all the time,” he told ABC. “I never lose it.”
To help Eddie Saman begin to rebuild, consider making a donation to his PayPal account.
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