Helping the Hunters

HOMEOWNERS The Hunters
PROJECT Home Rehabilitation
BUILDER Christian Appalachian Project
LOCATION Knott County, KY

When Housing Can’t Wait first met the Hunters, their belongings lay in piles on their porch and driveway. They had salvaged what they could from the flood waters and mud and were living on their carport. Jerry had wrapped it with plastic to keep out the elements.

The night of the floods, Sherry was awakened by her husband, who was monitoring the storm. A mobile home belonging to her late father, which sat a few feet behind their home, had already begun to fill with water. She frantically gathered belongings to store on the bed and higher levels when the water reached her ankles.

“It just kept getting higher and higher until it was up to our knees,” said Sherry who is 61 and has problems with her back. “We decided to go up on the roof. It was still dark, early morning, but we stayed [on the roof] about three or four hours.”

Her nephew and his wife live behind them and had come over to help; their home received significant flood damage as well. They all stayed on the roof together.

“There was mud everywhere. I just felt awful, it was ruined so bad that you couldn’t even live in it,” Sherry said. “We slept in the bed of our pickup truck, but it made our backs hurt and it continued to rain. We decided to put our bed on the carport.”

Their kitchen table and chairs sat in the middle of the aluminum-roofed carport surrounded by boxes of miscellaneous items saved from the floodwaters. Jerry, who is a bit handy with wiring, ran electricity from the house so that they could power the microwave and washer and dryer to wash their mud-caked clothes. There was no such luck with plumbing and a hospital toilet chair sat off to the side of the carport.

“I knew if the water got in the house we’d be in trouble,” said Jerry, whose brother’s mobile home came off the foundation and floated about 300 feet away with his brother still in it. “I felt miserable, homeless. I told her we’d better get out because the electric was still on, and we’d all get electrocuted.”

They found out about Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) when volunteers came to pull out wet insulation from underneath the house and made plans to replace the floors which were buckled in every room.

“I didn’t even feel like it was safe to have people in there at the time,” said James Akers, a crew leader with CAP’s Home Repair program. “The floors could really give way at any time and you’d find yourself under the house.”

With temperatures steadily in the 80s during the day, mold was an issue. But the temperatures created other challenges at night. “It started getting cold and we had to put extra quilts on the bed,” Sherry said. “We were just going to have to get some kind of heater out there until they got repairs done.”

Akers worked to secure plywood to make the home safe to enter initially, even though he knew more extensive repairs would be needed in the future.

“I don’t know how we would have gotten these repairs done if it wasn’t for organizations like CAP,” said Jerry, who's 67. “It took me and my wife 15 days to get all of our belongings out that we could. She’s down in her back and I just couldn’t do it myself.”

When the waters finally receded, the mobile home, that belonged to Sherry’s father and once sat behind their home, had been washed right off the foundation. Another family member drowned when his home washed away.

“We needed a lot of help, especially the elderly,” Jerry said. “It would be very difficult for me and my wife to try to replace the floors ourselves. I don't think I could have done it. I’m really grateful.”

It took CAP about two weeks to finish repairs. “It’s good that people come to help you. Volunteers were so busy trying to help so many people,” Sherry added. “It’s taken about a month and half to move back in, but we’re still working on it. There are people that don’t have the money. Probably would have been impossible for us to do all of the work and get back in it. We just want to thank everybody that helped us. We appreciate it.”