WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — Delana Maxine Feury, 79, is thankful for her new home.
“I like it. I like it,” she said. “It’s a nice place, couldn’t be any better.”
But life was more than a challenge as Feury waited for the house to be built. She was among thousands of West Virginia residents who had to flee rising floodwaters in summer 2016.
She and her husband, Maynard, had lived for 30 years up Tuckahoe Road in a modest house with a creek running behind it. On June 23, 2016, as rain pounded the area for hours, the gentle creek started to rage.
“Oh my God. I don’t want to remember it,” Feury said during an interview at her home last week.
As water surrounded the house, neighbor Adam Hamrick took Delana and Maynard to his house, which was across the road and situated a little higher. They took shelter there all night.
When the Feurys returned to their own home, water had been inside, up to about knee level. As it receded it left mud behind.
“It took days for us to clean up,” Delana said.
All the moisture gave way to black mold.
The Feurys continued to live in the home, but under increasingly difficult circumstances. Maynard, who had cancer, died on Dec. 6, 2017. Delana carried on, applying for the damaged house to be knocked down and rebuilt through RISE West Virginia, the state government program handling flood relief.
The wait was another two years, involving paperwork and permits.
Eventually, Delana received a call saying work was about to begin and she should get out of the house within 10 days. She moved to Lewisburg Manor, a retirement community a few miles away.
All last summer, construction crews worked on the house. This past July 26, three years and a month after the flood forced her out, Feury received the keys. A ceremony with state officials marked the milestone.
A wooden ramp leads up to the new, solid, single-story home. Feury proudly showed off its two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a central living area for relaxing.
Feury is pleased.
“It’s a nice house,” she said.
Her daughter, 62-year-old Delma Spinks, now lives there too.
“She was tickled to death,” Spinks said.
The house where Feury now lives is among 85 homes completed through RISE West Virginia, according to the most recent update.
One of those with a new home is Teresa Chandler of Clendenin, who accepted keys last Friday.
“This will be my first gathering at Thanksgiving,” Chandler said during a ceremony to take ownership of the new house built through RISE.
“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.”
Jenny Gannaway, executive director of West Virginia Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster, said work continues to get more families back in homes.
“We look forward to helping many more families return home as soon as possible,” Gannaway stated in a recent update about RISE.
Although there has been progress, many more families are still waiting.
There are still 392 cases in RISE West Virginia. Of those, 329 have been awarded to a construction contractor or subrecipient, and 14 more are currently out for bid.
Those cases are at different phases of the process, but 66 of them represent homes where construction is taking place right now.
During a recent meeting of West Virginia’s Joint Legislative Committee on Flooding, Adjutant Gen. James Hoyer described a current emphasis on laying foundations before winter weather hits. With foundations in place, construction on other aspects of housing can continue through the frost, he said.
“What we’re looking at is trying to get as many foundations as close to December 31 as possible,” said Hoyer, the state’s point man on flood relief.
Legislators whose constituents are still recovering from the flood would like to see expedient progress.
Delegate Jeff Campbell, D-Greenbrier, was on hand last summer when Feury received her home. Campbell would like to see others experience the same relief.
“Some progress has been made, but we still do have a ways to go. I still hear from residents in the district who are still waiting for answers that they can’t get answers to,” Campbell said.
“These folks want answers, and we’re going on four years now. I wish they could do more and do it faster.”
Mike Honaker, Greenbrier County’s homeland security and emergency management director, agreed.
He said progress fell behind early, and frustration has continued because of bureaucratic hurdles and requirements that seem to change.
“You can be on the outside of this whole process and think ’85 homes, that’s a great thing.’ For those folks it is great, and we’re very pleased they have those homes,” Honaker said.
“But we are contacted on a daily basis by folks on the telephone or walking in, constantly wondering ‘Where are we in the process? Are there any answers? Are we getting any closer? It’s discouraging. You can’t help but think they must be so frustrated with us. Or becoming desperate.”
Most West Virginia flood victims continue to live with instability, he said.
“The best case scenarios are that they have stayed with family,” Honaker said. “The middle scenario is they have somehow continued to live in dilapidated and even condemned property that we have tried to give them out of.
“The worst case scenario is we realized a family with a child was living in a shed with a dirt floor and basically a tarp as the door to the shed. No heat, no water, not even a hardwood floor.”
That family eventually moved out and into a hotel.
“It’s just unacceptable that we’re seeing that,” Honaker said. “We do our best when we find out about it.”
Delana Feury’s new house represents an anchor of security while life provides more challenges. Delana experiences trouble remembering, and daughter Delma is living with congestive heart failure. Delma has worked to not depend on the oxygen tanks gathered inside the front doorway.
They are proud of the home and comforted by the shelter it provides.
“I’m well satisfied,” Delana said. “It’s a nice house. I couldn’t have asked for any better.”