Help the James Lane Survivors
Donation protected
My name is Autumn Shirley, and I just survived the worst flood that this area has ever seen by spending the night on the roof of a house. On Saturday, April 30th, Southern Missouri was struck by an historic flood and thousands of homes were lost. My parents, Peggy and Clint Donahue, had a home on James Lane in Tecumseh, which is on the North Fork of the White River, upstream from Dawt Mill.
My husband, Joshua, and I went to the river house that afternoon to help my mother sandbag and prepare for the 25' flood that was predicted to occur as a result of the heavy rains that we were experiencing. The waters rose so quickly on both sides of the house that we became trapped there. We were eventually forced to climb onto the roof using a stepladder that we propped onto a table on the second story deck. We spent the next 9 hours up there hoping and praying for rescue.
The rain continued all night long, causing the water to rise to 40', which has never been recorded for that area. We sat on the peak of the roof and watched the water rise from the deck to the roof in less than an hour. At its highest, the water was only 5' away from our feet. It was rushing so fast that there was no hope for rescue boats to reach us, although we could see them trying again and again.
In the meantime, the water took out huge trees and buildings all around us. I will never forget the sound of our neighbor's metal barn being ripped apart by the water and rushing toward us. Thankfully, it passed feet away from the back of the house and did not slam into us. Next, our barn went. It passed a few feet in front of our house. At some point, a large portion of someone's metal roof became lodged against some trees that stood just upstream and in direct line with our house. We were terrified that the force of the water pushing against the metal would cause the trees to fall on us. Instead, it created a dam that saved our lives by diverting a lot of the huge debris that was coming our way.
During all of this, I was able to keep in touch with my daughter in West Plains via text message and she provided me with updates about the rescue efforts. We were also in touch with one of our neighbors, who is a first responder and immediately began working to rescue us. We learned that the neighbor simply didn't have a powerful enough boat to reach us, and were thankful that they didn't try because it would have been impossible and may have resulted in the loss of life. Thank goodness that didn't happen! My daughter informed us that the first water rescue team had become trapped and were unable to reach us so were pulling out. They were then going to try to send a helicoptor to lift us out. The chopper was supposed to come from Jeff City, but we soon learned that it could not fly until the lightning stopped. That never happened. Instead, more water rescue teams were sent in and we could see them all around us, maybe 200 yards away. Unfortunately, it was still impossible to reach us because the water was simply too fast and there were trees, buildings, propane tanks, and other large, dangerous debris flying by.
At about 2:30 AM, we noticed that the water wasn't rising as fast as it had been before. Within about 20 minutes, it finally started to recede, so we know that it crested sometime between 2:00-2:45 AM, even though the rain continued to pour down. That's when the rescue teams pulled off, waiting for first light before trying again.
At daybreak, the rain started coming down even harder and we were worried that the water was going to rise again. Fortunately, the water had receded to about 5' below the roofline by then and the rescue teams were already back at work. They were able to get a lot closer to use before launching their boats, and that turned out to make all the difference.
The water was still raging, but they only had about 100 yards to navigate and they were experts. They made their way to us, reaching us at about 6:00 AM.
They could not take all three of us at once, so my mom went first, and then they came back for Joshua and I. We had to lower ourselves off the roof using an extension cord that we had tied to an antennae at the ridgeline. The cord took us to about 2' above the boat, and letting go of it to drop into the boat was the scariest thing that I have ever done in my life.
Because James Lane was completely flooded, we were unable to leave. Instead, the rescuers transported us to an upstream neighbor's home, which was on higher ground and had only minimal water damage. Everyone on James Lane was gathered at that home.
As the sun came up, and the water continued to recede, we began to survey the damage. The area looked like it had been through a hurricane - boats wrapped around trees, houses and barns completely crushed, propane tanks littered all around...
Four of our neighbors lost their homes completely, including our next door neighbor downstream. Her home was only 30 yards from ours and it was completely crushed. Several large barns were gone, as were guest houses, porches, boats, cars, trailers, pets, RV's, and so, so much more.
Four of our nine neighbors lost everything and all of our neighbors, including us, sustained some loss. Because Ozark County does not have a building inspector, none of these properties were eligible for flood insurance. The entire cost of rebuilding their lives will be born by them.
This campaign is to help with those costs. The funds will be given to the nine neighboring families to split up according to need - the four families who lost their homes will receive the most, and it will be split evenly amongst the remaining five families who lost outbuildings, etc. I want to make clear that these funds are not for me, and I will not touch one cent - every bit of the money raised will go to our neighbors in need. Peggy will hand deliver the funds to the families on an ongoing basis each time she makes a withdrawal. For privacy reasons, I will not name everyone involved in this campaign, and I will only share pictures of our own home and property. I implore you to help if you can because these folks are going to need every little bit of help that they can get.
My husband, Joshua, and I went to the river house that afternoon to help my mother sandbag and prepare for the 25' flood that was predicted to occur as a result of the heavy rains that we were experiencing. The waters rose so quickly on both sides of the house that we became trapped there. We were eventually forced to climb onto the roof using a stepladder that we propped onto a table on the second story deck. We spent the next 9 hours up there hoping and praying for rescue.
The rain continued all night long, causing the water to rise to 40', which has never been recorded for that area. We sat on the peak of the roof and watched the water rise from the deck to the roof in less than an hour. At its highest, the water was only 5' away from our feet. It was rushing so fast that there was no hope for rescue boats to reach us, although we could see them trying again and again.
In the meantime, the water took out huge trees and buildings all around us. I will never forget the sound of our neighbor's metal barn being ripped apart by the water and rushing toward us. Thankfully, it passed feet away from the back of the house and did not slam into us. Next, our barn went. It passed a few feet in front of our house. At some point, a large portion of someone's metal roof became lodged against some trees that stood just upstream and in direct line with our house. We were terrified that the force of the water pushing against the metal would cause the trees to fall on us. Instead, it created a dam that saved our lives by diverting a lot of the huge debris that was coming our way.
During all of this, I was able to keep in touch with my daughter in West Plains via text message and she provided me with updates about the rescue efforts. We were also in touch with one of our neighbors, who is a first responder and immediately began working to rescue us. We learned that the neighbor simply didn't have a powerful enough boat to reach us, and were thankful that they didn't try because it would have been impossible and may have resulted in the loss of life. Thank goodness that didn't happen! My daughter informed us that the first water rescue team had become trapped and were unable to reach us so were pulling out. They were then going to try to send a helicoptor to lift us out. The chopper was supposed to come from Jeff City, but we soon learned that it could not fly until the lightning stopped. That never happened. Instead, more water rescue teams were sent in and we could see them all around us, maybe 200 yards away. Unfortunately, it was still impossible to reach us because the water was simply too fast and there were trees, buildings, propane tanks, and other large, dangerous debris flying by.
At about 2:30 AM, we noticed that the water wasn't rising as fast as it had been before. Within about 20 minutes, it finally started to recede, so we know that it crested sometime between 2:00-2:45 AM, even though the rain continued to pour down. That's when the rescue teams pulled off, waiting for first light before trying again.
At daybreak, the rain started coming down even harder and we were worried that the water was going to rise again. Fortunately, the water had receded to about 5' below the roofline by then and the rescue teams were already back at work. They were able to get a lot closer to use before launching their boats, and that turned out to make all the difference.
The water was still raging, but they only had about 100 yards to navigate and they were experts. They made their way to us, reaching us at about 6:00 AM.
They could not take all three of us at once, so my mom went first, and then they came back for Joshua and I. We had to lower ourselves off the roof using an extension cord that we had tied to an antennae at the ridgeline. The cord took us to about 2' above the boat, and letting go of it to drop into the boat was the scariest thing that I have ever done in my life.
Because James Lane was completely flooded, we were unable to leave. Instead, the rescuers transported us to an upstream neighbor's home, which was on higher ground and had only minimal water damage. Everyone on James Lane was gathered at that home.
As the sun came up, and the water continued to recede, we began to survey the damage. The area looked like it had been through a hurricane - boats wrapped around trees, houses and barns completely crushed, propane tanks littered all around...
Four of our neighbors lost their homes completely, including our next door neighbor downstream. Her home was only 30 yards from ours and it was completely crushed. Several large barns were gone, as were guest houses, porches, boats, cars, trailers, pets, RV's, and so, so much more.
Four of our nine neighbors lost everything and all of our neighbors, including us, sustained some loss. Because Ozark County does not have a building inspector, none of these properties were eligible for flood insurance. The entire cost of rebuilding their lives will be born by them.
This campaign is to help with those costs. The funds will be given to the nine neighboring families to split up according to need - the four families who lost their homes will receive the most, and it will be split evenly amongst the remaining five families who lost outbuildings, etc. I want to make clear that these funds are not for me, and I will not touch one cent - every bit of the money raised will go to our neighbors in need. Peggy will hand deliver the funds to the families on an ongoing basis each time she makes a withdrawal. For privacy reasons, I will not name everyone involved in this campaign, and I will only share pictures of our own home and property. I implore you to help if you can because these folks are going to need every little bit of help that they can get.
Organizer and beneficiary
Autumn Shirley
Organizer
West Plains, MO
Peggy Donahue
Beneficiary
