Explaining the Flood to a Five-Year-Old
Remodeling the basement was one of the first projects Michele and Brett Girtler tackled after buying their Goodview home in February 2007. By August, the basement had been transformed: it became the place where their four-year-old son, LeeRoy, played with his toys, and where Brett and Michele retreated to watch television on comfortable new furniture. The basement also stored walkers and cribs and other baby supplies for the twin girls the family was expecting in October.
The Girtlers lost all of that on the night of the flood. When they returned the next day, they found that water had filled the basement to its nine-foot ceilings.
“We opened up the basement door and saw things floating past,” Michele says. “It was devastating. You work so hard, and within hours it’s all gone. It was pretty scary, being seven months pregnant with two babies coming in two months.”
The Girtlers’ loss might seem small compared to others, and Michele doesn’t like dwelling on it: “You got to pick yourself up and dust yourself off and keep moving forward, because if you keep looking back, you’re not getting anywhere,” she says.
But the Girtlers’ efforts to leave the flood behind offer a glimpse of how much trouble even a ruined basement can cause.
The family began gutting the basement as soon as the water receded, and moved back into the upper level of the house within two weeks, but heat and hot water were not restored for several months. Meanwhile, the stress of the cleanup took its toll on Michele, who gave birth to twin girls prematurely. Kathryn and Elizabeth were born with a rare blood disorder that could cause them to bleed to death from even minor bumps or cuts; doctors believe the girls’ condition might be indirectly linked to Michele’s exposure to the sludge left behind by the flood.
Without help from insurance, the Girtlers were forced to take on new debt to repair the basement and replace lost essentials. They tried to take out a home equity loan to help pay for the girls’ medical expenses, but were turned down. Selling the house is not an option, either, since the flood knocked as much as $50,000 off its value.
Not surprisingly, the disaster has taken an emotional toll on the family, especially LeeRoy, who is now five years old.
“My son still gets upset when he thinks there’s any water coming,” Michele says. “When he plays, his cars are always drowning in water or they’re driving over bridges where there’s water underneath. He’ll say, ‘Remember I had that toy that was in the flood? How come that flood had to come to our house?’ It’s hard to explain to a five-year-old.”
For Michele, recovering from the flood means beginning to forget about it; frankly, she’s tired of the topic. But community support is still needed to make that happen.
“People need more help, more volunteers, more materials,” she says. “There are a lot of people in my area who haven’t even started rebuilding their basements yet. . . . Nobody in my neighborhood had flood insurance, so everybody’s still trying to pay off the debts they’ve accrued and pay their mortgage and do everything else they need to do to get their lives back on track. So any little bit is going to help those people who are still struggling.” |
