Carolyn Pressley Wilson never thought she’d have to do this again.

In 2004, when remnants of Hurricanes Ivan and Francis swept through the mountains ten days apart, her home in Clyde was destroyed and carried away by the flooded Pigeon River.

Afterwards, Carolyn, now retired after 36 years at Haywood Regional Hospital, moved miles upstream to Cruso to be near her parents. But on August 17 she raced from her own home to theirs as the same river roared and tumbled down its narrow valley, overwhelmed by intense cloudbursts high on Big East Fork.

Carroll and Mary Ellen Pressley are 92 and 85 years old respectively. They married 65 years ago, and built their house not long after that. Carroll was a longtime Champion employee and a licensed electrician.

The Pressley’s house is a fair distance from the river – a hundred yards or so – but the water swirled around its foundation when Carolyn arrived, and was deep in the yard as she rushed her folks to waiting vehicles.

Both have had open heart surgery, so they could only move so fast.

“Mama was saying ‘I need to get this and I need to get that,’” said Carolyn, laughing, “and I was saying what you NEED is to lock the door and come on!”

The family waded to safety, and the Pressleys were relatively fortunate compared to some of their neighbors. Still, the water destroyed one room – a garage Carroll had meticulously remodeled as a kitchen and family gathering spot for Mary Ellen, who cooked for her family on its wood stove. Water filled their remaining crawl space, soaked into floors and walls, destroyed their surface well and swept away some outbuildings where Carroll, a collector, kept the memorabilia of a lifetime.

His carefully curated collections were gone, and he was moved to tears when he talked about an insult added to their injury: his collection of antique coins, kept in a bucket, was inside and survived, but was looted after the water receded by someone who offered to “help”.

Fortunately, better help soon arrived. North Carolina Baptists on Mission, a veteran disaster relief organization with experience helping hurricane victims, happened upon the family soon after.
Overwhelmed, Carolyn and her folks were trying to muck out layers of mud, but Bill Martin and his crew made quick work of the first stage of cleanup.

“They did more in two hours than we could do in two days,” said Carroll.

Baptists on Mission make damaged homes safe, sanitary and liveable through moisture and mold abatement, utility repair and new sheetrock and floors, among similar things. They do the work at cost, which is an average of $17,500 per house, and local charities and donors sponsor the repairs. A strict formula and series of inspections is part of the process.

A rehab team came after the cleanup, and the drying-out-and-replacing of damaged floors and walls began. And with the help of a neighbor who’s a dowser they found the Pressley’s well head buried under two feet of mud. It’s a shallow well, though, so it might not be salvageable and a deeper well might be needed.

“All I need is water and heat and I’m going home,” said Mary Ellen.
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The Haywood County Rapid Re-Housing drive has raised money for 30 houses so far, with more in the pipeline. The original goal of 10 houses has been raised to 50 after a strong local response. The total number of houses in need isn’t yet known, but educated guesses say about 150.

If you’d like to contribute to rapid-rehousing efforts in Haywood County, we urge you to make a donation to the United Way of Haywood County, 81 Elmwood Way, Suite 140 or PO Box 1139, Waynesville, NC 28786.

If you’d like to learn more about rapid rehousing, please call or email Executive Director, Patsy Davis at (828) 492-4124 or [email protected].