April 19, 2024
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble…” Psalm 50:15
I cried at the Mexican restaurant last Saturday. Normally a place of chips, salsa, and laughter, I was reflecting on the day. I tried to describe it to my beloved through the tears.
My friend Paige and I wanted to help in some way. We had baked cornbread and cake to be given out with meals in local areas devastated by recent flooding but hoped to do something hands on. We found that a neighbor’s family in Knott County had been hit hard by rising water on July 28th.
Travelling to the Beaver Creek area Saturday morning, we saw first-hand what an ocean of raging flood water could do. Pictures and videos had not done the devastation justice. We were stunned. Cars stood on end in the creeks and were smashed into guardrails. Mobile homes were torn in half. Enormous piles of debris were at every household. There was much to take in.
When we arrived at our destination, we found that the bulk of mud-out had already taken place. We could see the water line on the outside; everything on the inside had been deconstructed, down to the studs.
The lady of the house, a beautiful retired teacher, told us her husband had longed to live in that very house since he was a little boy. When it came on the market last year, they had jumped at the chance to buy it but were not able to begin remodeling then because her mother was dying. After caring for her and her death earlier this year, they were finally able to completely renovate the dream house.
They’d just moved in.
We saw her brand-new gas stove and refrigerator that had been delivered nine days before the flood. Now filled with gunk, they sat in a wall-less kitchen.
Paige and I cleaned with brushes, brooms, and shop vacs, trying to get mud out of each nook and cranny. Everything had to be pristine before building back. It will be a while.
I was glad I had a mask on and was on my knees so no one could see my tears. Tears for the homeowner and the magnitude of the task before them. Mud was still wet in some corners. There is a constant fight against the black mold that comes after floods. So much had been lost. They were so tired.
The homeowner shared that she had experienced many things since the flood: fear, anger, disappointment. She knows the Lord but admitted that it is still hard getting through it all. I thought of the story of Naomi in the book of Ruth. Her loss had been great. She was full of heartache and other emotions, yet the Lord helped her start a new chapter in her life. An amazing chapter that was more than she could have ever dreamed: beauty from ashes. In our area, it will be beauty from mud. Somehow, He can do that here.
She shared another tragic story: The flood had come at night. They received a surprising call to check outside and were stunned to find that they were already surrounded by water. As they hurried to safety, she saw small lights and could hear yelling from a few houses down. A man was being swept away in his trailer. Neighbors were yelling for him to jump out of his home, into the water. It was scary yet the only way he would survive. He saw their flashlights waving. He heard their cries. But he was too afraid to leap.
I cried on the way home - a place with walls and no mud. As of Sunday, Samaritan’s Purse still had a work order for 471 homes. Each one filled with sludge and heartache.
Call upon Me in the day of trouble…around these parts, the day of trouble was July 28, 2022.
___
Dawn Reed is a pastor's wife and newspaper columnist. Reach her at preacherswife7@yahoo.com.
