EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) – In the days following the Weinbach explosion, the community rallied to raise money for displaced families. One of those efforts was a benefit concert and silent auction. But the days turned to weeks, and some families say they have not been contacted about receiving any funds.

“I understand people probably expect a quick turnaround or something like that,” explains Stephen Horning of Dojo Recording, “but considering I’ve never done any fundraising before, and we didn’t have a lot of the logistics in place to do this to begin with, we’ve been building these things as we go with setting things up.”

Horning helped organize the silent auction and concert, with the help of the non-profit group Be Kind. The event, held just days after the explosion, raised over $2,300. With the help of additional donations later, the tally reached $2,600. However, it wasn’t until the end of September when the first checks to some of the 11 displaced families were issued. So, why the delay?

“I tried getting as much together before we started writing checks,” says Horning. “Specifically because we were so far away from my goal.”

The goal was to raise $1,000 per family and, while the final number fell short of that mark, Horning says more fundraisers will likely come throughout the end of the year.

Horning says he has also had to rely on finding ways to contact the families, which has also slowed the distrubution process, but says those funds will be sent as soon as communication is made.

“This money’s not going anywhere. It’s going to sit in this bank account until we figure out how to get it to these people,” says Horning.

Other aspects of recovery are moving at a faster pace. The Evansville City Council recently approved more than $100,000 for the demolition process, which has already begun with 5 homes near the explosion site.

“We contacted all the insurance companies and said we’d like to do all 5 of them at the same time,” says Evansville City Councilman At-Large Ron Beane, “because we want to be sure they go in and out through the alley so we don’t have to block off Weinbach.”

Councilman Beane adds that none of the displaced families have returned home, and he anticipates at least 7 more homes will be demolished. Councilman Beane says costs for the demolition will be offset per agreements with insurance companies, stating those companies will refund the city of Evansville for each demolition.