CLENDENIN, W.Va. — Teresa Chandler said she has plenty to be thankful this Thanksgiving holiday.
On Friday, the displaced Clendenin native received the keys to her new home after her old residence was destroyed by the June 2016 floods.
A key turnover took place at the residence along U.S. Route 119 next to Big Sandy Creek, marking the end of a reconstruction project completed by the West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) through the RISE West Virginia program and West Virginia National Guard.
“I am very thankful and blessed. It’s hard to believe,” Teresa Chandler, the homeowner said fighting back tears. “It’s mine, it’s mine.”
“I get the keys, I can lock the door and feel safe and secure in my own home. This was a house but these guys have worked and made myself a home.”
Around a dozen volunteers from VOAD and family were at the ceremony on Friday to greet Chandler and give plenty of hugs.
Chandler, who lives by herself, was home at the time her residence flooded. The old plot sits roughly 50 yards from the new house, as the VOAD construction raised the house foundation up above the flood plain.
She told MetroNews the only belonging she was able to get out of the house during that period was her father-in-law’s American flag.
“A lot of it I can’t remember,” Chandler said of the events. “I stayed in the house as long as I could. I couldn’t get anything out because you couldn’t get to the house. The only thing I got out of the house was Dave’s Dad’s flag.”
Jenny Gannaway, the Executive Director of VOAD said the agency was there with Chandler days after the flooding, helping in any way possible so they felt great to be there on Friday.
Just over 80 houses have been built using federal dollars through the RISE West Virginia program but VOAD and other agencies have worked to help over 2,300 families around southern West Virginia, according to her.
Gannaway added the agencies are down to their last 400 homes in the process, more than three and a half years after the flood. VOAD has work coming up in Kanawha, Greenbrier, Nicholas, Fayette, Webster, and Clay counties.
“I know a lot of families want to be back in their home,” Gannaway said. “But I am happy to say that we working with a lot of the families through the voluntary agencies, the VOAD and donated dollars, we have made sure that everybody that is not in their RISE home yet is in a safe and sanitary house.”
As for Chandler and her family, they have big plans next week in their new home.
“This will be my first gathering at Thanksgiving,” Chandler said.
“My family will be here and I am excited about that. My mother is 81 and she is not well and I want to spend it with her and make it the best Thanksgiving there ever was.”