ELKVIEW, W.Va. — Like so many of their neighbors, the road to recovery from the flood of one year ago has been a steep climb for Cate and Michael Dennis. The couple went to bed the night of June 22nd realizing there was heavy rain in the region. There had already been a culvert in the front yard of their one story home in the Elkview community back up and flood the yard. However, the water had receded by dark. Their property had never flooded before, so they felt relatively comfortable the worst was over. But the worst, was yet to come.
The flood waters rose again during the night into their home and covered everything below the two and a half foot mark. It was a home the couple had just poured $100,000 into.
“We had just finished an addition and complete renovation with a new master suite and new square footage,” said Cate. “We had just done a new roof, new windows, new HVAC, new hardwood floors, and new bathrooms.”
Timing couldn’t have been worse. The Dennis’ insurance agent had an appointment to visit the home and write new coverage for the home renovations on June 24th. The couple carried flood insurance, but they would eventually learn it only covered the structure as it stood pre-renovation. It also covered none of their belongings. They were able to save only those clothes which hung in a closet. Everything else, including their two vehicles, were lost.
Cate, at the time, was seven months pregnant with their second child. The days following the flood were a nightmare. But for the Dennis family, the nightmare never seemed to end. It’s been a full year of frustration.
“We are renting an apartment in Elkview. We’re having to pay for that and on our mortgage,” she explained. “The flood insurance rep told us not to remove anything from the premises before he came. He even asked us why we didn’t move anything to the second floor repeatedly (um…there isn’t one) and once he gave the OK to start, we had hours to get everything out of the house before a demo crew arrived. The flood insurance made us hire a professional crew for demo and that cost about $30,000 alone.”
The couple would also soon learn the flood insurance didn’t cover but a fraction of their losses. The Dennis’ thought carrying the cost of flood insurance was responsible planning. Turns out it may have been a curse, since the coverage apparently precluded them from most charitable assistance.
“We received one $1,500 rental assistance check from FEMA back in August. We were repeatedly denied and our last appeal was 190 pages because they wanted everything. We got a ‘No and don’t ask us again.'” she explained. “We got a gift card from the Red Cross for just under $400 and that is it.”
With the anniversary of the flood only weeks away, the Dennis family–now four instead of three–is still not back into their home. Their second child was born in September.
“The relief organizations don’t even recognize my baby because she wasn’t born within 30 days of the flood,” she added.
A renovation of their home will require a permit from the county. The work must include raising the structure seven feet off the ground. However, she says getting a permit to do the work has been an even bigger headache because of the necessity of moving utility lines to allow for clearance.
“We cannot get a permit from the county until this is in place,” she said. “The county has been to our house five times to make sure we haven’t started the work, because if you do, it’s a $200 dollar a day fine and you have to tear it all out.”
Moving the lines has become the most difficult obstacle. Appalachian Power began working on the engineering for the move in December, but Dennis said they have been frustrated by a lack of communication and a lack of action by the company.
“They want almost $8,000 to move their lines off of the poles,” she said. “We can’t even call the other utilities until this easement is straightened up. If all of the utilities want the same amount AEP does, we’re looking at $32,000 just to move utilities off a pole. It’s not just that they’re not allowing us to move forward, it’s like they are intentionally putting up roadblocks. It’s like nobody cares.”
Appalachian Power responded to inquires by MetroNews indicating their original proposal to the Dennis’ would have met the specifications for the permit by moving one pole and installing a transformer on their property at an estimated cost of $5,653. But, the power company said the plan was rejected by the Dennis’ and a second and third option were also proposed, each adding to the cost because of the degree of work involved.
“We ended up presenting three different options on how to relocate the lines at this home,” said Appalachian Power Spokesman Phil Moye. “The first option would have been fairly easy and most likely could have been done some time back, but the other options the family wanted ended up being more costly. They involved an additional pole and involved other folks’ property. That’s made it more complicated and ended up drawing it out.”
Cara disagreed with the contention. She claims the first proposal had a mistake and the second proposal was correct but required signatures from property owners long since deceased. She says repeated phone calls to the company representative handling their case have also gone unanswered and many messages were never acknowledged.
“Yes, I would prefer a discounted rate or this be waived because it’s flood related,” she said. “It’s not like we’re requesting it be moved because we don’t like where it is, we can’t raise our house with lines going across the top of it.”
Dennis also claimed AEP dragged its feet on getting the proper easement documentation and because the neighboring property is in heirship she was forced to do the title research to identify the necessary signers on the easement documents on her own.
After almost a year of difficulty, the frustration is wearing thin on the Dennis family.
“It’s just apathy, I just want people to do their jobs,” she said. “If anybody has any idea how to get a fire lit under AEP to get this moving, that would be great. I don’t know what they’ve been doing all this time other than not answering their phone.”