Tales From the Flood: From Wisconsin cold to North Carolina wet

A little over a year ago Victor de Mancia and his wife Crystal moved to Cruso from Wisconsin, mostly because they were charmed by the beauty of the mountains, but also because they felt oppressed by weather. They were sick of Wisconsin snow.

On August 17 they got a flood instead. Record-breaking levels of water roared down the valley at Cruso, brought on by heavy and prolonged rains high on Cold Mountain. The de Mancia’s home was nearly destroyed, and their property strewn with vehicles, outbuildings and all manner of assorted debris.

What came next, though, was what they consider a flood of blessings. In two short months they’ve experienced extraordinary kindness, shared some of their own, and reached an enormous personal milestone all at once.

“It was a total catastrophe,” Crystal says, “but it brought people to us that will be forever friends – people we never would’ve met otherwise. And right in the middle of it all Victor was called for his immigration exam.”

Victor came to the United States from El Salvador 20 years ago, and he and Crystal, a native Minnesotan, have been married for 12. Just as they tackled this flood recovery – with their heads swirling from all there was to do – they made an unexpected trip to Charlotte, where Victor took the test, passed, and became an American citizen.

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The de Mancias fell in love with the mountains a couple of years ago on vacation and decided to work out the details for a move south. Eventually they found their house in Cruso: a sturdy mid century rancher with blonde brickwork, a nice yard, a pavilion for picnics, and the river nearby.

Crystal and Victor spent the first six months working on the property and home, making it their own. They looked forward to settling in and sharing it with friends. Crystal took a job at Haywood County Animal Services and Victor, a mechanic and handyman, took work in apartment complex maintenance.

They were both at work when the river came up. Unable to reach home, they spent the night on the floor of Victor’s work office in Canton, terrified for their house and pets: four birds, two dogs and a cat.

They had reason to be concerned: when the Pigeon left its banks along their stretch of the river, water crashed into the garage end of their house and swirled down an open stairwell into the basement. When the basement was full, the water burst through a wall at the far end of the house and continued on its way.

The de Mancias made their way home the next day to find their pets rattled but safe and their house a mess. The basement was an awful quagmire, and two walls – one on each end of the house – were badly damaged.

At first, their home was “red-tagged” by the county as a total loss, but they were able to find an engineer, Preston Gregg, of Waynesville, to complete an assessment and cost breakdown so that they could obtain a restoration permit and stay put.

“We’ve been blessed to remain home when so many neighbors were displaced,” Crystal said. “And we were also blessed to have so much help.”

A local couple, Pam and Craig Carter, came by way of New Covenant Church. They were on the scene almost immediately and organized volunteers to help both the de Mancias and their neighbors begin the cleanup.

After the downstairs had been laboriously mucked out, more volunteers from Baptists on Mission Disaster Ministry and Samaritan’s Purse helped remove the ruined furnace and ductwork, power washed the basement, and treated the space for mold. Even more help came from members of the de Mancia’s church, Barberville Baptist, and from old Minnesota friends Doug and Susan Mueller, now in Asheville, who contributed a heat pump and rallied more help from their neighbors.

Victor had the skills to pitch in with the neighbors’ houses as well as his. Among other things he’s a dowser, and he used his talent to help find the wellhead of the elderly couple next door, buried under a few feet of silt.

The couple’s challenges didn’t end within the walls of their home. Because their property is in a particular section of the Pigeon, with level woodland lying inside the curve of the river, it collected an extraordinary amount of flood-borne debris – along with a deceased victim.

Emergency personnel searched their land for days afterward, and when they were gone, the debris remained, including a Toyota pickup wrapped around a tree by the force of the water, outbuildings at odd angles, a recreational vehicle, and countless smaller pieces of furniture, appliances and rubbish. The couple was a bit mystified about what they were supposed to do with all the junk.

But Baptists on Mission came to the rescue once again, helping clear debris with bobcats so that county contractors could haul it away.

There’s still plenty of work to do, and while Haywood County Animal Services held Crystal’s job, Victor was let go when he couldn’t return immediately to work. He’ll soon be looking again.

Still, the de Mancia’s have been amazed by how their new community pulled together in the face of crisis.

“What was also wonderful is that nobody was asking if you were left or right, blue or red, or what color your skin was,” Crystal said. “Instead they asked us what our needs were and how they could help meet them. It was absolutely wonderful.”

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There’s still a lot of work to accomplish to get Haywood residents back on their feet. More than 65 individuals continue to live in the shelter. 114 homes were completely destroyed and more than 700 homes were damaged by flooding.

Well before the floods, our community was facing an affordable housing shortage. Since August 17th, the issue has become mission critical. Through a partnership between Baptists on Mission, the United Way and Mountain Projects, funds have been raised to support more rehab for 52 homes.

Currently, there are seven rapid house rehabilitation jobs that are complete, 26 more that are in process and 16 initial participants that opted for other solutions. If you know a homeowner affected by flooding that needs home rehabilitation, or can refer skilled tradesmen to assist with this work, please contact Bill Martin of Baptist on Mission, 336-408-8393.