Home Depot, Others Help Elderly Mother Of 9/11 Pilot Living Without Heat, Water For Months

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Long Island woman, whose son was the pilot of United Flight 93 when it crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, has been living without heat and running water for weeks.

Ilse Homer, 83, said it all began when the boiler in her Hauppauge home broke on Thanksgiving.

The water had to be turned off on Dec. 16 after several pipes burst from the cold, flooding her house and destroying many of her belongings, including furniture and memorabilia from her son.

"I was afraid for my little granddaughter. She's 11 years old and she was coughing and she was sneezing. And I was coughing and I was sneezing and I was so afraid we might catch pneumonia," Homer said.

Homer said Sears failed to honor her contract to fix the broken boiler, which was under warranty.

"Twenty-five messages from Sears on my telephone. They made an appointment and then the day before the appointment came they cancelled," Homer said.

"You can't live like this," her daughter, Monique, said.

Home Depot, Weil-McLain and Popular Plumbing will donate their time and products worth more than $10,000 to fix the problems free of charge.

"We're going to do whatever it takes," Home Depot spokesman Jeffrey Kuhr said. "When we looked at the extent of the job a lot of it won't be known until we swap out the boiler because with the water turned off we do know there's a lot of locations that the pipes burst."

Homer is eternally grateful.

"For free, I can't believe this, it's beyond me," Homer said.

She is staying in a hotel until everything is repaired.

"At Sears, the satisfaction of our members is our top priority," a statement from Sears Home Services read. "Our Home Services team is committed to addressing Ms. Homer's concerns and to standing behind our repair agreement commitment by ensuring her boiler is operating properly. We can accomplish this in the next 48 hours; however, we have been unable to reach her and in order to help her, we need to gain access to her home so we can assess the situation."