MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - Judy Cooke is determined to hang onto the few family heirlooms she has remaining - now contaminated by mold or damaged by the flood from Hurricane Matthew - to preserve her memories of loved ones.
The home on Jackson Bluff Road where she has lived for more than a quarter century and raised her family was likely damaged beyond repair from the flood water and trees that struck her roof.
But Cooke has FEMA-backed flood insurance she hopes will help take care of the structure.
It’s what is left inside that brought Cooke to tears when she surveyed the damage on Saturday.
Furniture made from teak wood that her parents bought in Italy and Germany 75 years ago were stacked upon beds and tables - a last minute effort to preserve the antiques as the Waccamaw River quickly rose and lapped at her front porch. But it wasn’t high enough to escape the flood waters that settled in her home for nearly three weeks.
The platinum-rimmed china that belonged to her parents was also washed over by the muddy water.
“I waited for those dishes all my life. I thought we would use it for Thanksgiving and Christmas. If the good Lord takes care of us, we will,” Cooke said.
The dishes, curio and china cabinets, and a stagecoach steamer trunk were but a handful of her mother’s belongings that once were the centerpiece of her home. Cooke noted the unfortunate timing as she wiped tears from her check - the first anniversary of her mother’s death is days away.
Unharmed in the slushy damage was the photo collage of her dog, “Jack,” who died during the flood last October. She gratefully hugged the frame close to her chest, but was visibly saddened that photographs of her border collie “Wishbone” had been destroyed. Wishbone died a week after Hurricane Matthew hit.
“Everything I love is gone,” Cooke said.
Despite the loss of nearly all of her belongings and family mementos in a home already elevated to escape flooding, Cooke has no intention of abandoning the river life and plans to rebuild even higher.
“I’m a river rat; I’m staying. All of my friends and family live here, all of the neighbors know us, why would I leave?” Cooke said.
Across the street at her neighbors’ home, the Schroeder family moved methodically to push every last water-logged belonging out of their home with a different goal in mind - leaving the river behind and moving to higher ground.
Rod Schroeder and his son hauled out appliances still dripping in water, while wife Gayle threw away the dishes, the clothes, even the spices in a cabinet.
“Mold,” Gayle Schroeder said. “Even though you can’t see it, it’s still in the air, and in the food. FEMA said nothing in here is any good, we had too much water.”
The Schroeders had just finished remodeling their home from last year’s flood, but the decorative details and freshly painted walls were no match for the Waccamaw.
The home is already elevated nearly six feet, and the furniture was raised another two feet and placed on paint buckets before the river crested. But their efforts were in vain. The record-setting flood was another 16 inches higher than last year and ruined all of the furniture - the final straw for the Schroeders.
By noon, their home stood empty. The only hint of their lives remaining were the markings along a bathroom door that noted the growth of their son Robert since 2002.
“We’re waiting on FEMA to see what comes through,” Rod Schroeder said. “If we get any money, we’ll raise the house higher and sell it.”
A bonfire blazed in the backyard, as Rod fed the flames all of their furniture and memories they had collected over a lifetime. He pushed a Ponderosa Pine gun cabinet that he had owned since he was a teenager onto the fire, turned his back and walked away.
Meanwhile, a crowd began to gather back at the Cooke’s house, where son Dereke, daughter Ashley and their children and friends, began to clear the enormous downed trees and remove furniture from the home in the hopes of salvaging some of the antiques.
“That furniture is solid teak, not that pressed particle junk they sell today,” Dereke Cooke said.
Cooke fired up the outdoor grill, and worried whether she bought enough chicken to feed them all.
Despite the destruction all around them, the Cooke family joked about some of the damage that was caused by a masked looter while they were flooded out - a raccoon that sliced through a window screen and made himself at home.
The muddy paw prints ran from a broken dog treat jar he emptied to a countertop canister he hacked to get at some pecans. He left a trail of empty shells then helped himself to leftover refrigerator contents, gobbling down a bowl of rice and gravy, but turning his nose up at corn.
“Now that’s funny,” Judy Cooke said. “You’ve got to laugh, or you’ll cry.”
Granddaughter Taylor asked her mother Ashley if they still planned on buying a kayak and was told they probably would, next year.
“That way, we can paddle back home, next time,” Taylor said.
Replied Ashley: “That’s kind of my plan.”
___
Information from: The Sun News, https://www.thesunnews.com/
Please read our comment policy before commenting.