Stranded by the storm

July 22--Danyelle Odom could do nothing but watch and pray Saturday evening as storm water piled up in her front yard -- first covering her driveway and then her garden, burying her shed under 5 feet of water, then creeping to within inches of her front steps.

"If it hadn't stopped raining when it did, my home would have been under water as well," she said.

Her SUV sat in the driveway, filling with water, reaching the engine compartment and inside the vehicle's passenger space. She still doesn't know if it will start. She's waiting for everything to dry out before she tries it.

Saturday's downpour dropped 3-4 inches on the Waynesville area over the course of the evening, generating flash floods, downed trees and storm damage. The area of Love Lane and Orchard View Drive in Waynesville experienced flooding and landslides as water sought its exit downhill.

A combination of saturated soil and wind brought down several large trees in the area.

Russ Avenue became a flood plain, stranding motorists as their vehicles stalled out in the hip-deep water.

Waynesville Police officers Billy Benhart and Derek Embler rescued a woman and her 4-year old grandchild from their vehicle that was stalled out in the middle of Russ Avenue. They waded out to her car, helped them to safety, then went back and pushed the car out of the road. Once out of the water, it started up again.

A private citizen in a black pickup truck pulled a stalled-out Corvette from the roadway near Hardee's, said Sgt. Keith Moore.

"It sure got deep there in a hurry," said Moore.

No one was injured in the flooding or subsequent storm damage.

Farther downhill, small creeks overflowed their narrow banks, water funneling to the path of least resistance.

On Russ Avenue, below Barberville Baptist Church, water pooled again in the roadway before rushing downhill, following drainage ways and creeks until it gathered for one last rush straight down Anderson Drive, pooling 5 feet deep in Odom's front yard. The wall of water then attempted to drain through the culvert under Moody Drive.

Unable to hold up against the overwhelming onslaught of water, the culvert collapsed, taking with it the roadway above, cutting off the homes and properties of six families who live above the washed out area.

Stranded

Judy Sipes lives at 153 Moody Drive. She and her husband are trapped above the washout, unable to get their vehicle out.

"We have no way for emergency services to reach us, we can't drive to doctors appointments, the grocery store or even take our trash out. It's a very frustrating situation," she said.

Because Moody Drive is a private roadway, homeowners are on their own to repair the road.

The problem, said Sipes, is that no one has the money for the needed repairs.

Homeowners are still awaiting estimates for the cost of repair, but several neighbors expressed concern that the cost would exceed their limited budgets.

"I want to pay my share, but I'm just not able to at this time. I'm in a real pickle," said Moody Drive resident Clifford Sechser.

"I just want to lay down and cry," he said. "I lost my wife a year ago and now this. It's almost too much. It makes me want to pack up and take my dog and just walk away."

Sipes has been trying to sell her home and fears that it will be impossible now.

"I will have to disclose this to whoever is interested and who will want to purchase then?" she said.

No help in sight

The normally friendly neighbors on Moody Drive are now at odds with each other over how to fix the problem.

"Sadly, I see this all the time," said Marc Pruett, director of the Haywood County Erosion and Sedimentation Control Department.

"The problem is we have tremendous development where houses and structures have been built in natural drainage ways," he said. "We will continue to have problems like this as long as building continues in areas where drainage should occur."

According to Haywood County Emergency Services coordinator Greg Shuping, events like this do not qualify as a state of emergency in the way that a hurricane or a major earthquake would. Therefore funding is not available to assist homeowners with repairs on private property. The last time money was available to homeowners was following the 2004 hurricanes and that was a rare occurrence, said Shuping.

In the meantime, residents with storm damage are forced to shoulder the burden themselves, many without insurance to help cover the costs.

"I don't have flood insurance," said Odom. "Everything that was damaged is just a loss for us."

Wanda Anderson, for whose family Anderson Drive is named, has lived in the area her whole life and says she hasn't seen flooding this bad in over 25 years.

"I looked out my window, and it looked like a big river flowing by," she said.

She remembers a time when there was a catch pool for mountain runoff near where K-Mart is now to prevent such problems, but it is long gone now.

"It's sad to see so much damage," said Anderson, whose garden was partially washed away. "It used to be that neighbors would help each other in times like this, but that doesn't seem to be the case much anymore."

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