Still struggling

September 02, 2008 01:26 pm

— Families are still dealing with the effects from floods that hit northern Indiana earlier this year.
Near the Oakdale Dam, Kim Dunn and her family are living in a mobile home after floods nearly demolished their home.
After moving back into their house on Feb. 1, which was filled with four feet of water after the initial flood in January, they were forced out for a second time when the area was flooded again.
They haven’t been back since.
The single mother and her two children are now living in a mobile home between Delphi and Monticello while they make repairs to their house.
According to Dave McDowell, EMA director of Carroll County, homes near the Oakdale Dam were part of one of the most severely hit areas.
“They took a strong hit right off the bat,” he said. “Many of the homes were submerged over the roof.”
The Dunn family is one of many in the area who are displaced from their home.
North of Monticello on Brandywine Court , Terry Jernagan is living at a friend’s home while he gets his home rebuilt. More than half of the home was damaged by the floods.
His mother, Nancy Jernagan, who lives next door to him, says Terry hopes to move into his new home by Christmas.
Nancy was able to move back into her home after remodeling it, but Terry wasn’t so lucky — having to tear down his home and start over.
In February, Disaster Assistance for Northwest Indiana was formed by faith-based and community-based organizations in response to the long-term recovery needs of the survivors.
DANI has 115 clients from eight counties on the southwest end of the disaster area. The counties included are Tippecanoe, Carroll, White, Jasper, Benton , Pulaski, Fulton and Cass.
Families with unmet needs after federal and insurance funds are applied are encouraged to apply for assistance from the organization.
According to the organization’s Web site, its role is to find ways to meet the families’ needs to bring them back to pre-flood standing.
Alan Welch, director of DANI, said the group had already closed 37 of its cases. He said most of the organization’s clients did not have flood insurance.
Welch said the organization would continue to work with families over the next year.
“We’ve got still quite a ways to go,” he said. “We’re still getting new clients.”
The Dunn family is determined to get back into their house, Kim said, but every day a new obstacle arises.
Originally, they had planned to move back in by Christmas, but without the manpower they need, Kim says the move probably won’t come before next year.
After the first flood, family members moved back into the house even though there was no insulation, no walls and the floors were bare. They had high hopes that the home would soon be restored, but then another flood came along.
Donated mattresses and appliances were destroyed, and the family was forced to find a more permanent residence.
Nowadays, Kim goes to the home every day on her lunch break and after work.
She has put up drywall in the kitchen and living room, but still has work to do in several other rooms. Dunn said she needs help, but finds it hard to ask.
“We try not to ask anybody for anything,” she said, adding, “I guess it’s pride.”
Welch said part of what DANI does is to recruit volunteers.
McDowell recently helped organize a group from Purdue to clean up homes west of Delphi. That group is planning another trip for October.
Welch said several groups from out-of-state had volunteered in the area.
This was the first summer in awhile that Kim and her family hadn’t spent near the Oakdale Dam.
Kim said the reason they moved to the area was because it was a special area for her growing up. She has many memories of fishing with her dad and tubing in the Tippecanoe River across the street from her house.
The family applied for help from DANI and received $30,000 for the damages to their home, but only have $2,000 left after buying the trailer and putting in repairs to both the trailer and their home.
The house right now is empty except for the second floor, which has little damage.
Kim, who works in the National Guard, said she hopes her orders will be up by the end of this month. If they are, she plans on retiring and focusing on finishing up the home. Right now, she says working on the home nearly every day, plus keeping up a normal routine with her kids, is causing her a lot of stress.
“I get depressed and sick to my stomach when I get home,” she said. “I have no energy any more.”
She said the area was a ghost town this summer. Usually people are tubing, fishing and boating in the river.
Several properties near Dunn’s home were torn down. Next door lie the remnants of a trailer, trash still spread on top of the foundation.
McDowell said the areas hit by the flood might never be the same.
“It will probably come close, but people will be much more leery of flood dangers,” he said.
Kim’s mom, Bonnie Bray, said even when they do move back in, there will always be that fear in the back of their minds.
“We’ll always be scared that there will be another one,” she said.
Kim, who said she had put a lot of work into the house before the flood, said she wasn’t sure the house would ever be what it was before. Still, she said, she and her family are eager to return.
“I don’t want to be anywhere else,” she said. “They say, ‘Home is where the heart is.’ Well, my heart’s here.”
Melissa Soria may be reached at (574) 732-5143 or via e-mail at
melissa.soria@pharostribune.com

Want to volunteer?
Contact Dave McDowell at (765) 564-0028 or the Carroll County Community Flood Relief at (765) 202-3935.

Need help?
Contact Alan Welch at DANI at (877) 773-0249 or e-mail director@daniflood.org. Log onto www.daniflood.org for more information.

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