GAYLORD, Mich. — Clothing, photo albums, medicine, family heirlooms – all things some residents of Nottingham Mobile Home Park in Gaylord fear they’ll never get back, after cleanup on the storm-devastated development began without their notice, they say.
The EF3 tornado touched down on May 20 and decimated parts of Gaylord, an Otsego County city with a population of about 4,000. Few areas were struck quite as hard as Nottingham and residents say they’re mourning the loss of their homes, and now many of their things.
A letter from Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s Consumer Protection Team to the park’s owner, Richard Puzzuoli and his attorney Steven Sallen, claims that the park didn’t provide park residents adequate notice to come retrieve their items among the rubble before beginning the task of cleaning it up.
The park sent a letter to residents, but Nessel’s memo said “the letter does not seem to provide meaningful notice of the type of cleanup efforts referenced in our discussion. Nor does the letter notify tenants about securing their personal belongings.”
“Instead, the letter simply states, ‘tree and debris cleanup is ongoing to be followed with infrastructure repairs to the water, sewer, gas, and electricity lines,’” the letter continues. “Our concern is that residents were not given any notice or opportunity to secure personal belongings before they were scooped up in the debris clearing.”
Some Nottingham residents, like Loreine Webber, whose home was destroyed, said she never even received the letter; neither did members of her family and some of her friends who all also live in the park.
“We had stuff that we ain’t going to be able to get back,” she told FOX 17 on a video call Friday, while moving from one hotel to another. “We had to argue with them to get in there and get that stuff.”
Webber and her family are still technically homeless, for now moving from hotel to hotel while they hunt for permanent housing and wait for insurance claims to play out.
On a phone call Friday, Sallen told FOX 17 the resident’s claims were “totally not true” and called them “ludicrous.”
“People are imagining an awful lot of things, which is understandable given the trauma of that event,” he said.
Sallen also claimed that no demolition was done on any of the homes – bulldozers and other equipment were used only to clear rubble. Webber says she’s heard differently.
“They were demolishing homes of people that didn’t even get a chance to get in there,” she said.
Webber says demolition or cleanup – it matters very little to the people who didn’t know they could or were supposed to go back for their personal items. On the phone Friday, Sallen couldn’t say where or if the park was storing any personal effects found in the rubble.
The Attorney General closed the matter with no further action, but Sallen said two Nottingham residents have filed an action in the local small claims court, claiming belongings were removed without their permission. Sallen says Puzzuoli plans to fight those allegations.
Michigan State Police also confirmed they are not investigating the issue.
DTE Energy, who did work at Nottingham in the days after the storm, confirmed they did not convey a sense of urgency to park management, and didn’t recommend a deadline to begin cleanup.
For now, Webber and others whose homes are now rubble are doing what they can to keep a roof over their heads.
“You go home at night and that’s your place, that’s where you can relax,” she said, “we don’t have that.”
To access resources from the United Way, click here.
To access resources from the Michigan Red Cross, click here.
Read the full letter here:
Sallen Letter Mobile Home Park by WXMI on Scribd
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