Lois Straughter showing Dave Detcher water levels after Tropical Storm Allison

Lois Straughter’s son and husband died within a few months of each other. Then Tropical Storm Allison destroyed her home. Ms. Straughter remembers the night of the storm and says, “I took my bath, got on my knees and said my prayers and went to bed. I woke up in the middle of the night and heard something behind my head—flap, flap; flap, flap—and thought, ‘Somebody’s messing with my house!’ When I got up out of the bed, I stepped in water.”

The sound Ms. Straughter heard was a lake of rainwater surrounding her house. The lake eventually penetrated her home and filled it up with chest-high water. She recalls, “I went down the hall and called my two granddaughters and said, ‘Children, y’all get up! There’s water in this house!’” Soon after there was a knock on the door. The police and Coast Guard had arrived by airboat.

“I opened the door,” says Ms. Straughter, “and in come these policemen, who waded into the water. I asked, ‘What in the world? Why are you here?’ They said, ‘You’ve got to leave here,’ and I told them, ‘I’m not leaving out of my house in this water. I have to do something about this.’ Well, they picked my old self up and carried me right out.”

Two weeks later Ms. Straughter finally was able to return home. Clogged street drains had stopped working, and the stagnant water inside Ms. Straughter’s home permeated
everything and simmered for more than a week in June’s summer heat. “Everything I had was gone. Everything in here was just sloppy,” she says. “And it was stinking so. The water had come up over the mattresses and furniture. It was a disaster.”

Ms. Straughter, who has heart disease and walks with a cane, is raising two granddaughters on a small monthly check from Social Security. Her income is meager and her health is poor, but her spirit is indomitable. She told an equally distraught neighbor, “I’m going to pray God will send some help.”

Someone at a nearby shelter heard about Ms. Straughter’s destroyed, mold-infested house and called Neighborhood Centers Inc. (NCI). Immediately after Tropical Storm Allison, NCI, a United Way social service agency, set up a hotline to help low-income, senior citizens restore their homes. As the magnitude of the task became apparent, NCI partnered with the United Methodist Coalition on Flood Relief to substantially increase the pool of volunteers. Dave Detcher, manager of internal relations, says, “Our main concern was the health of the people, especially senior citizens who had no way to begin the clean up process.”

Ms. Straughter received $13,000 from FEMA, which she used to buy appliances and building materials. But the home’s saturated walls and floor were beyond repair. NCI enlisted some of the volunteers who took charge and organized the reconstruction of her home. Mr. Detcher says, “We matched a young couple up with Ms. Straughter. They walked in and started cutting away the walls, and when they left they were almost in tears. They didn’t know what to do because it was so bad in there.” The couple continued to spearhead the project, other volunteers pitched in and, in addition to rebuilding her home, NCI helped refurnish it. “The volunteers did a great job of cleaning up the house and killing the mold,” says Mr. Detcher. “but she was basically living in a shell, so NCI supplied bedroom sets for her and her two granddaughters, and a reclining chair for Ms. Straughter.” Other donations have filled her home with everything she needs.

With the help of government agencies, caring volunteers and NCI, Ms. Staughter has overcome another one of life’s harsh obstacles. Yet she doesn’t believe in “grumbling.” She enthusiastically points out the new, fresh walls and furnishings and says, “Thank God I have a home!”

Back to index