LAUREL — Vickie Bulmer just wants to go home.
She and her husband Henry, both 68, and their little dog had to leave their double-wide mobile home on Basin Street nearly three months ago after the Whitewater River reached a record high of almost 23 feet and flowed into the town.
For the first month after floodwater devastated their home, the Bulmers stayed in a travel camper at their daughter and son-in-law’s house. Then they bought a Grand Design Imagine camper and moved it to their yard.
“It’s comfortable, and I hope it stays warm this winter,” Vickie said. She’s thinking ahead about how her family, great-grandkids and all, will gather in the small space for Christmas.
As soon as the Aug. 13 floodwaters receded, the Bulmers started removing water-saturated flooring and drywall. Neighbors, church members, firefighters and others they had never met converged at their home to help.
“I was talking to my sister on the phone … and the last thing she said was that she’d pray for us. It wasn’t long before a truck pulled up out here and four guys got out and said they’d come to help,” Vickie said. “They worked all day helping my husband. We thanked them, and we thanked God for sending them to us.”
But they were unsure for two months whether their home of 20 years in the small town of about 400 people could even be repaired. How much assistance people qualified for depended on factors including whether the property was in or near a flood plain and the extent of damage given the value of the residence.
Information from FEMA, state and local agencies was conflicting and confusing. An initial review indicated the Bulmers would have to tear down their house and elevate a new one several feet in order to get federal assistance. That changed after another inspection, and the Bulmers received $43,000 in federal disaster funds to make repairs.
But even with the money in hand, they still needed a building permit from the county planning department before they could get started.
In Franklin County, where more than 200 residences sustained serious flood damage, residents say building permits have been elusive and difficult to obtain. Federal rules, local regulations, backlogs and data entry errors have left people like the Bulmers waiting. And waiting.
On Oct. 22 — 70 days post-flood — Henry Bulmer clocked out at his job at the Franklin County Highway Department and went straight to the Laurel Community Center, where county planning officials had set up a temporary office where citizens could seek building permits to repair their flooded homes.
When he emerged from a 90-minute meeting, building permit in hand, others waiting their turn applauded and offered congratulations.
Many discouraged Laurel residents face the prospect of not moving back to their homes for months, forcing them to live in temporary homes like the Bulmers, stay with other family or travel to a hotel out of town. Some may never return.
Tracy Brumfiel, Laurel Town Board president, set up the loudspeaker system from the Long Branch Tavern and convened an outdoor town hall meeting in the days following the flood.
“Our residents are street smart, and they can smell B.S. from a long way,” Brumfiel said. “I told them to keep things civil and that we’d tell the truth about what was going on. It was heartbreaking for our residents in the poorest part of town seeing everything they owned scooped up by a skid loader and taken to a dumpster.”
“And I asked for a show of hands, ‘Who wants to leave Laurel?’ No hands went up.”
He arranged for county planning department employees to travel from Brookville, the county seat, to Laurel’s community center to assist in the lagging building permit process. He heard how local people were struggling.
“I’m here,” he said, “making sure our people get taken care of so they can stay in Laurel.”
During an Oct. 13 Franklin County Council meeting, officials acknowledged the slow progress and hired an extra building inspector to speed things along.
“We have 220-some homes in this county that do not have building permits, and we need all the help we can get,” councilman Brian Patterson said.
Dave Harmon, who lives with his wife and two granddaughters on West Main Street in Laurel, wasn’t worried when the flood warnings came. The town hadn’t flooded in 113 years.
But when he stepped outside a few hours before dawn on Aug. 13, the street in front of his house was under several feet of water and his front porch nearly submerged.
“I could see it moving toward us, and I told my wife we’d have to go,” Harmon, 61, said.
Harmon returned that afternoon to retrieve his wife’s dentures and his granddaughters’ medicine.
“The power was still on, can you believe it? The water was up to here,” he said, pointing to a water line 18 inches up the base of a china cabinet. “And there was just rubble. Everywhere.”
In the days and weeks that followed, he and family members hauled furniture, heirlooms and debris out the front door, where industrial-sized dumpsters lined the street. They sanitized the floors and walls with pool shock, a mix of oxidants that destroys bacteria.
People stopped to lend a hand and every day, meals prepared at the community center were delivered around town to feed those who were salvaging their homes. “We got through this because good people are this town. Everybody jumped in and helped everybody else.”
The family was able to move back after a week, living mostly upstairs. His granddaughters are just 4 and 5 years old and wanted to sleep in their own beds. The kitchen walls and cabinets on the main level are gone, but there’s a new stove sitting in the middle of the room.
Ten weeks after the unexpected flood, Harmon is finally rebuilding. He got his permit from the county on Oct. 16 after complaining loudly about the delay and calling the planning office daily. “I went up there where they were issuing permits and after about 45 minutes they printed that permit out.”
The family received $28,000 from FEMA and $5,000 from the state to help cover the costs. It will be enough. “We just wanted to get home.”
It’s been nearly three months since Pete Collins walked out of his flooded house in the pre-dawn darkness and stepped into waist-deep water. The 86-year-old widower wasn’t wearing shoes, and there was no going back for a pair.
Today, he’s living at Woodridge Inn, a hotel in Connersville 10 miles from home. He used a credit card to buy new clothes and shoes at Walmart. He drives to Laurel every day to visit the cemetery where his wife Flo is buried, like he’s done since her death five years ago.
He goes slowly past his home on West Washington Street in his new car, hoping to return. Soon.
The Aug. 13 flood destroyed his 2008 Kia and his riding lawnmower. When the water receded, volunteers gutted Collins’ home of the past 35 years, removing sodden furnishings, ripping out flooring and tearing down 1970s wood paneling throughout.
But the work ceased when residents learned they might jeopardize their eligibility for federal assistance if repairs were made before FEMA officials completed inspections and damage estimates. Preliminary building permits got rescinded.
“I had two days and spent $3,000,” he said while waiting for his final meeting with the county planning department. “Then, we had to stop.”
He lived with his son awhile, then secured a state-funded voucher to pay for a month at the hotel.
Finally, work has resumed at his house after he was successful in securing a permit on Oct. 22.
Bev Keller, who owns Long Branch Tavern on Pearl Street in downtown Laurel, has been an advocate for locals like Collins as they navigate obstacles to rebuilding. Her business did not sustain any flood damage.
“His doctor said today that this is taking a toll on his health,” Keller said as she waited with Collins at the community center to inquire about his pending building permit. “This is the fourth time he’s met with these people.”
Cassie Garrett, regional director and correspondent for Whitewater Publications, reported on the flood and the aftermath and serves on the long-term recovery committee.
She said it’s been challenging getting information from county officials about progress, and she submitted a public records request to find out how many building permits had been issued as citizens clamored for answers.
”A lot of houses remain empty. People have just gone elsewhere,” she said. “It was such a mess in the beginning, so overwhelming for everyone and now a lot of these local government entities realize they may have dropped the ball and are trying to catch up and make it right. It seems like there should be a plan you pull off a shelf when something like this happens.”
She said FEMA officials evaluated houses and provided financial help, but without building permits from the county, repairs were put on hold.
“People didn’t have insurance for something like this. Many live in poverty, so we have people who had not very much to start with who are really in a bad way now.”
A representative from U.S. Sen. Todd Young’s office surveyed the damage a few weeks after the flood and asked Garrett how things were going as residents sought support to rebuild. She was working as a volunteer in Metamora, seven miles from Laurel, which also flooded. She held her tongue.
“I told her there was a conversation we would be having when this work was done.”
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FPI News reporter Laura Lane covers the people and issues of rural Indiana. Reach her at 812-760-1540 or laura.lane@fpinews.org.
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