A Place to Call Home Again
“I am so ready. I am so ready to go home.”
The initial work to install a septic system and well may not seem like much, but these small steps give Myshell and her family hope that they will soon have a place of their own again.
Though there’s no returning to the holler they called home for more than 24 years. The day that Helene hit, they watched their mobile home get washed away in the torrential flood that tore through Madison County.
“We could always predict that river,” said Myshell. “This time we thought we would have minimal damage, but the overall effect is that we lost everything. That’s really hard to comprehend. … There are things gone that will not be replaced.”
Despite watching an entire lifetime of possessions washed away in the waters, she calls it a “true blessing” that they made it out safely. They had family that they could stay with while figuring out the next steps, but those next steps were not easy.
“A person doesn’t really understand the trauma until it’s over,” said Myshell. “It took until January for the shock to wear off and reality to set in.”
She struggled for months with her insurance even with all the photographs she submitted showing the before and after. When that was finally resolved, her claim with FEMA was denied. It felt as if no one understood that her entire home and all her possessions were gone.
At a public meeting in Marshall, an advocate introduced Myshell to Pisgah Legal Services. As soon as she shared her story, she was connected to Pisgah Legal Attorney Nick Bondurant, who quickly stepped in to help. Nick worked alongside her to sort through documentation, organize her appeal, and communicate her case in a way that could finally be heard for what it really was.
About eight months after Helene, Myshell received the maximum FEMA allowance for home replacement and repair, along with additional funding for displacement assistance, totaling over $46,000.
“Nick was wonderful,” said Myshell. “It was hard work getting from Point A to Point B with FEMA. It took somebody to be able to say it in a way I couldn’t get across to them.”
Now her family is starting fresh by building on a different piece of property where a new well and septic system are being installed. Their journey home will look different than it did in the holler they loved for so many years. But thanks to the help they received along the way, Myshell and her family can move forward.
For others facing similar challenges, Myshell hopes they’ll reach out and find the kind of support that made all the difference for her family. Nick gave her a boost of confidence to believe they would get through it, and she believes that everybody could use someone to say, “Here, let’s go handle this.”