It’s Still Going On
When Patrick Hesch promised his wife and three kids that they would move back into their house before Christmas, his wife, Shelly, was a little skeptical. She had reason to be: a rain-swollen Garvin Brook had slammed about twelve feet of water through the place, sweeping away most of their belongings and forcing the Heschs to rip the house down to its studs. And Patrick would be doing most of the work himself, with the help of relatives and friends, while holding down two jobs. That was the only way they could afford to rebuild.
But they made it happen, thanks to the many late nights that Patrick spent at the house, not to mention the generous help of family, friends, and community members.
“Three days before Christmas, we moved in,” Shelly says. “It was livable, so we went home.”
Things could have turned out much worse. When neighbors woke Shelly and Patrick by pounding on their door shortly before 3 a.m. on August 19, the water had already reached the house; a few minutes later, it was coming through the front door in waves. Shelly tried to get shoes on her children, but before she could, a fireman and two neighbors each grabbed a kid and carried them through knee-deep rushing water to safety. Shelly was left holding a boot as shoes bobbed around in the entryway.
“I kept screaming at my husband to shut the door because the water was coming in, and my husband just looked at me and said something like, ‘You can’t keep the water out . . . and you can’t panic right now, because we’ve got three kids out there who need you,’” Shelly recalls. “That’s when I think it started to register that this was a big deal.”
When Patrick took a last look at the house about five minutes later, the water was halfway up the front door.
“I remember that like it was yesterday,” he says. “When I saw that, I knew it was going to be bad. I just thanked God we got out.”
One year after the flood, the Heschs still need to put on a roof and replace the driveway, but they hope to be mostly finished rebuilding their house by fall. They are slowly replacing the furniture, clothes, appliances, and other things they lost. But it is going to take more than sheetrock and shingles to recover from the flood. The Heschs expect to be dealing with the financial fallout for years. And regaining a sense of security is going to take time, too. Patrick admits to some sleepless nights during this spring’s heavy rains.
“For those of us who went through the flood, it’s still going on,” he says. “I get overwhelmed yet.”
The Heschs say that their family, friends, and neighbors have made it possible for them to come as far as they have since August 2007. Like others affected by the flood, the Heschs are counting on friends, family, and neighbors to accompany them the rest of the way home.
“All I really ask of the community is to be patient with us; it’s going to take time for us to get over [the flood],” Patrick says. “I know I’ll be okay, but there are so many people who need help – not just money, but someone to talk to . . . just a shoulder to lean on.” |
