By Lorrie Ross
Staff Writer
“Get out of the house. The mountain is coming down.”
That is what grandpa Billy Joe yelled as the mudslide began. There were 14 people in the house the morning Helene arrived on Sept. 27. Twelve got out. Grandpa and Robert, his longtime friend, shoved family members out through a window as the house began to crumble into the creek. Then the two men were swept away.
All 14 people did not live in the house. Like many families in Appalachia, the kinfolk had several homes in the same holler so they could rely on each other. “God willing and the creek don’t rise,” they could get through anything. Except that day the creek did rise. A lot. Plus, days of torrential rains which preceded Helene created a deluge that brought down the mountain.
Granddaughter Claire said the river ran behind her grandparents’ house. Their son, Claire’s Uncle Joe, and his family came “down the hill because the creek was getting up and they all felt safe at granny’s and paw’s.” Grandpa Billy Joe and granny Dora raised eight children and some extended family there in the Plumtree area of Avery County, N.C. The couple had been married for 61 years. They were inseparable and expected to live the rest of their lives in that little house. Grandpa did spend his final days there. He was 81. Apparently, one needs flood insurance to be covered by a mudslide so granny may never be able to rebuild.
Claire, her parents and some of her siblings live in a different holler in Avery County. Some of their homes had so much mud and water, it took a couple of days to dig out. As soon as they did, they began searching for friends and family. Her brother, Roy, and a couple of others found Robert’s body three days after the flood, with help from Robert’s dog. They found grandpa Billy Joe’s body seven days later.
Despite a damaged home and loss of his work tools, Roy spent days searching for others. He hauled the body of a friend to a rescue hub after finding him in a tree. He was threatened with arrest, but told officials he would keep pulling bodies out of the rubble. “Go ahead and arrest me,” he answered. “You and me both will be on TV.”
As I mentioned last week, these are personal friends’ stories. They treat my mother like family and she thinks of them as family. Claire and Roy went straight to mama’s house in Roan Mountain, Tenn. to check on her. For those who do not know, Roan Mountain is next door to Avery County, much like Clay County is next to Young Harris and Hiawassee, Ga. Claire had called my mama very early on Friday morning and said, “Jane, you need to get out.”
Mama put a week’s worth of medicine into a bag, along with three outfits, bottles of water, a jar of peanut butter, some Vienna sausage and crackers. She drove her car up the road above her house and parked by a church during the worst of the storm. About seven hours later, she looked down the mountain and saw her home surrounded by the Doe River and knew she could not go back. She managed to drive through debris into Elizabethton, Tenn., where my sister had found a vacant motel room.
Fifteen minutes later, my daughter was talking to my mother on the phone and heard someone banging on the motel room door. “Get out. It is flooding,” the voice screamed. After that, we lost touch with my mother for several hours. It is a terrible feeling knowing your 81-year-old mother is missing during such devastation. We had no idea where she was, but we were watching footage online showing vehicles and parts of buildings floating in the Doe River through Elizabethton near where she had been. Even there, the hospital had to evacuate staff and patients as the halls filled with water. Where was my mother? Claire and Roy were also looking, yet communications were down.
We did not hear for many hours, but the stranger at the door had helped my elderly mother wade through waist-high floodwaters to the highway with nothing but her cane and her little bag of medicine and clothes. Her car was left behind. Someone gave her a ride to Johnson City. Two days later, we arranged a flight to my sister’s. Mama fell and needed surgery so she is still there.
Still, the disaster continues for some people. Billy Joe and Dora’s granddaughter, Betsy, was married to Robert’s son, so Betsy lost both her grandfather and father-in-law in the mudslide. A few weeks later, Betsy’s father, Joe, got sick and died. On Nov. 29 Betsy’s husband, Freddie, had a stroke while taking his oldest daughter hunting. He lingered for several days before dying. He was 39.
There is no way of knowing for sure, but many believe the combined impacts of the tragedy created health problems or hastened underlying ones for those family members. Betsy is raising her four children alone after losing Freddie, who was their sole bread-winner. She and the children are currently living with her mother.
These are just a few of the thousands of stories being told in the hollers and little towns of the mountains. There are also thousands of blessings happening. I hope to share some of those with you soon.