Their story:
We have had a very hard 8 days (Saturday Oct. 8th about 10:30pm - til today) and I want to clarify all that happened because people have been misinformed, uninformed or totally unaware...... or haven't kept up with our situation on the newsfeed. We feel like we want to SHARE what has happened thus far.
As you know #Matthew hit our area last weekend and brought an extensive amount of rain and wind........ and with that caused our area to FLOOD. The neighborhood where we live has been featured on the news, Facebook, newspaper locally and natioonally. Our Neighborhood generally always holds water when it rains hard. I think like most people in the neighborhood and us as well thought that it would go down pretty quickly after the rain stopped like it always does, but the rain just never let up and the pumps and the drainage just couldn't handel it. Our home (where we have been renting 2 1/2 years) experienced a lot of flooding (Waste high in some places). The corner where we live stayed high until about 5:00PM Sunday OCT. 9th.... People were coming by on boats, yes boats (quite a site). Our house where we RENT is a 1 story on a slab and experienced 10-15 inches of water throughout the ENTIRE home. There were many homes in the area who lost their entire first floor because the flood rose so high. The water stayed high for about 11-12 hours and finally went down about 10am on Sunday.
Prior to the flooding in our home Saturday night our family was out about 6pm and returned 10:30pm unable to drive home. We left our main car in a parking lot about 2 plus miles from the home just off South Plaza. We were hoping the car would stay safe there. We walked home....."TRUDGED HOME".... in waste high water though the wind and rain barfoot or in flip flops hoping the entire time that the house was ok and dry. Nearly and hour later getting home it was good to see the house with lights on and the boys who beat Joe and I home were safe inside dry and watching TV. Minutes after Joe and I got to the house the water that was sat the lip of the front door then began consuming the home everywhere and then life changed for us and so many others on our street as we know it.........
Around 2AM we were able to fall asleep with about 2-5 inches of water on the house floor and it still continuing to rain outside.
So Sunday afternoon when the water began to receed we were able to pack some bags and walk out in about knee high water to a truck that came by and helped us out down the road to a wonderful friend with a truck that took the 4 of us who were soaking wet (some more than others) * a family joke (we won't go there)....to our car we left on dry land Saturday night. We then went to Joe's sisters house on the other side of VA. BEACH where she offered us to stay for a while. The following day on Monday morning Joe and I met the landlord and came back to the house and assessed the damage. The water throughout the neigborhood by Monday morning had completely gone down. Our landlord had already begun to come in the home and pull up some floor and carpet. The discussion we had with him that day was we were going to stay in the home because he had nowhere to go (he didn't have any other properties he could move us to and we didn't have the funds to go anywhere else). We had family we were staying with and so he could work on the home and we would be out of his way. We began clearing out the rooms, getting all the WET stuff up out and on the curb and in the washing machine as needed. The Landlord and his 1 man team started assesing the damage and after a few days of demo he felt he could pull out carpet (which they did), Pull up the floor (which they began) and check the walls for Mold and we would take our furniture and shift it around the house as they worked. We were all on board with this plan. The garage was beginning to dry out and finally by Tuesday Joe got in there and cleaned up some stuff. The garage was the deepest and we lost a lot in there because still had a bunch of boxes on the garage were filled with photos, albums, books, misc. items, Chirstmas Decorations ect.... when it flooded they just all fell out of the boxes into the water because the boxes were cardboard. Anyway the plan going into this weekend was to continue to clean up and clear up the yuck in the house. The Landlord came to us and said his team found extensive Mold damage in the house from years gone by and he was going to have to gut BOTH bathrooms and rip out shower and tub and totally replace both. Basically it was going to be ALL NEW when all was said and done and we were ok with that, but it meant the cleanup repair process was going to be alot longer. Our Family again assured us it was ok to stay with them while that happened.
Friday morning was when our world was ROCKED.... Joe called me and said the landlord was told by other professionals and research on FEMA site the regulations of our STUFF and that we had to dispose of it ALL. We couldn't leave it in the house and so forth..... PLANS CHANGED PANIC SET IT and now we needed to figure out what to do......
Many prayers were answered on FRIDAY and we got a storage shed ( thanks to some really great people in our life) and made plans to get everything out of the house Saturday afternoon. YESTERDAY we removed EVERYTHING out of the home and purged through it all with the help of some REALLY AMAZING PEOPLE who came through in a pinch with trucks and helped pack, purge, sift through the mess and brought some food and drinks. We appreciate EVERYONE who came yesterday. We had to throw away A LOT of belongings on the curb. It was tough watching the cLAW pick it up. MOST of all the FURNITURE is GONE and many treasured belongings GONE. MANY MEMORIES GONE and many Family HEIRLUMES GONE, many Photos GONE and it makes me very sad.... but it is what it is and we are moving on.
So this is the plan right now moving forward.
We have moved out of the house (still a few things to get out of the garage) - a 2005 JEEP LIBERTY to get off the property (FLOODED OUT)
We will not be moving back in. The Landlord is allowing us to break the lease and move on. We are going to continue to live with Joe's sister & Family for a few months (not sure how long) until we can save enough money to get back on our feet and to get into another home in Va. Beach. We are grateful to Beth & Jeff (who is still in the hospital but making great strides getting better) and the family making room for us to stay with them. We are thankful that the 4 of us were together and that we made it through....it has not been easy, and we are thankful for the help we have recieved so far. God has provided and will always continue to. Thank you for letting me share. Continue to keep the CITY our area in prayer as well as so many families down south. I have heard that there are some things going on in regards to the flooding and why it all happened.... but that's a whole other story.
We have had a very hard 8 days (Saturday Oct. 8th about 10:30pm - til today) and I want to clarify all that happened because people have been misinformed, uninformed or totally unaware...... or haven't kept up with our situation on the newsfeed. We feel like we want to SHARE what has happened thus far.
As you know #Matthew hit our area last weekend and brought an extensive amount of rain and wind........ and with that caused our area to FLOOD. The neighborhood where we live has been featured on the news, Facebook, newspaper locally and natioonally. Our Neighborhood generally always holds water when it rains hard. I think like most people in the neighborhood and us as well thought that it would go down pretty quickly after the rain stopped like it always does, but the rain just never let up and the pumps and the drainage just couldn't handel it. Our home (where we have been renting 2 1/2 years) experienced a lot of flooding (Waste high in some places). The corner where we live stayed high until about 5:00PM Sunday OCT. 9th.... People were coming by on boats, yes boats (quite a site). Our house where we RENT is a 1 story on a slab and experienced 10-15 inches of water throughout the ENTIRE home. There were many homes in the area who lost their entire first floor because the flood rose so high. The water stayed high for about 11-12 hours and finally went down about 10am on Sunday.
Prior to the flooding in our home Saturday night our family was out about 6pm and returned 10:30pm unable to drive home. We left our main car in a parking lot about 2 plus miles from the home just off South Plaza. We were hoping the car would stay safe there. We walked home....."TRUDGED HOME".... in waste high water though the wind and rain barfoot or in flip flops hoping the entire time that the house was ok and dry. Nearly and hour later getting home it was good to see the house with lights on and the boys who beat Joe and I home were safe inside dry and watching TV. Minutes after Joe and I got to the house the water that was sat the lip of the front door then began consuming the home everywhere and then life changed for us and so many others on our street as we know it.........
Around 2AM we were able to fall asleep with about 2-5 inches of water on the house floor and it still continuing to rain outside.
So Sunday afternoon when the water began to receed we were able to pack some bags and walk out in about knee high water to a truck that came by and helped us out down the road to a wonderful friend with a truck that took the 4 of us who were soaking wet (some more than others) * a family joke (we won't go there)....to our car we left on dry land Saturday night. We then went to Joe's sisters house on the other side of VA. BEACH where she offered us to stay for a while. The following day on Monday morning Joe and I met the landlord and came back to the house and assessed the damage. The water throughout the neigborhood by Monday morning had completely gone down. Our landlord had already begun to come in the home and pull up some floor and carpet. The discussion we had with him that day was we were going to stay in the home because he had nowhere to go (he didn't have any other properties he could move us to and we didn't have the funds to go anywhere else). We had family we were staying with and so he could work on the home and we would be out of his way. We began clearing out the rooms, getting all the WET stuff up out and on the curb and in the washing machine as needed. The Landlord and his 1 man team started assesing the damage and after a few days of demo he felt he could pull out carpet (which they did), Pull up the floor (which they began) and check the walls for Mold and we would take our furniture and shift it around the house as they worked. We were all on board with this plan. The garage was beginning to dry out and finally by Tuesday Joe got in there and cleaned up some stuff. The garage was the deepest and we lost a lot in there because still had a bunch of boxes on the garage were filled with photos, albums, books, misc. items, Chirstmas Decorations ect.... when it flooded they just all fell out of the boxes into the water because the boxes were cardboard. Anyway the plan going into this weekend was to continue to clean up and clear up the yuck in the house. The Landlord came to us and said his team found extensive Mold damage in the house from years gone by and he was going to have to gut BOTH bathrooms and rip out shower and tub and totally replace both. Basically it was going to be ALL NEW when all was said and done and we were ok with that, but it meant the cleanup repair process was going to be alot longer. Our Family again assured us it was ok to stay with them while that happened.
Friday morning was when our world was ROCKED.... Joe called me and said the landlord was told by other professionals and research on FEMA site the regulations of our STUFF and that we had to dispose of it ALL. We couldn't leave it in the house and so forth..... PLANS CHANGED PANIC SET IT and now we needed to figure out what to do......
Many prayers were answered on FRIDAY and we got a storage shed ( thanks to some really great people in our life) and made plans to get everything out of the house Saturday afternoon. YESTERDAY we removed EVERYTHING out of the home and purged through it all with the help of some REALLY AMAZING PEOPLE who came through in a pinch with trucks and helped pack, purge, sift through the mess and brought some food and drinks. We appreciate EVERYONE who came yesterday. We had to throw away A LOT of belongings on the curb. It was tough watching the cLAW pick it up. MOST of all the FURNITURE is GONE and many treasured belongings GONE. MANY MEMORIES GONE and many Family HEIRLUMES GONE, many Photos GONE and it makes me very sad.... but it is what it is and we are moving on.
So this is the plan right now moving forward.
We have moved out of the house (still a few things to get out of the garage) - a 2005 JEEP LIBERTY to get off the property (FLOODED OUT)
We will not be moving back in. The Landlord is allowing us to break the lease and move on. We are going to continue to live with Joe's sister & Family for a few months (not sure how long) until we can save enough money to get back on our feet and to get into another home in Va. Beach. We are grateful to Beth & Jeff (who is still in the hospital but making great strides getting better) and the family making room for us to stay with them. We are thankful that the 4 of us were together and that we made it through....it has not been easy, and we are thankful for the help we have recieved so far. God has provided and will always continue to. Thank you for letting me share. Continue to keep the CITY our area in prayer as well as so many families down south. I have heard that there are some things going on in regards to the flooding and why it all happened.... but that's a whole other story.
Organizer and beneficiary
Nancy Langford Musgrave
Organizer
Virginia Beach, VA
Jennifer Creasey
Beneficiary