Waverly flood victims empathize with those affected by Helene in East Tennessee
Hurricane Helene left behind widespread damage that stretched across multiple states.
WAVERLY, Tenn. (WSMV) - Helene caused extreme flooding in East Tennessee. Some think it could take weeks to recover, but officials emphasized recovery could take years.
It’s something people impacted by the Waverly floods know all too well as some are still rebuilding, three years later.
Gretchen Turner says Aug. 21, 2021 started off just like any other rainy day. She said, ”It was nothing abnormal, you know, it was no big deal, and then it was. It was like a raging river.”
Little did she know, a years-long recovery process was ahead of her. In the matter of minutes, water rose up to 28 inches in her home and four and a half feet in her office.
“It was just like a snow globe had been shaken up everything just crashed,” Turner said.
It took her and her family two and a half years to get back into her home, and she’s still dealing with the after effects.
“It’s just a horrible, long process. The flood mud, it’s here today. I find it every day. It’s still in the cracks and crevices, and it’s just, I just think I’ll never get rid of that.”
She said there’s still totes she hasn’t unloaded.
Now as she sees others dealing with something similar she admitted, ”It’s hard, there’s no doubt. This is the hardest thing that I’ve ever been through, and my heart just bleeds for these people in East Tennessee and North Carolina. I just want them to know that’s it’s going to be okay.”
Her biggest message to people starting their own recovery process was to accept help.
”Let people help you. I mean, that’s such a hard thing. I don’t know that I had ever asked anybody for help before, and here are all these people saying let me help you,” said Turner. “There’s no way we could’ve done it by ourselves.”
Turner also emphasized don’t be discouraged by the long road ahead.
”There are a lot of blessings you can’t even imagine all the blessings that are going to come out of this but I would just encourage everybody to look for those blessings,” she said.
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