BY DAWN REED

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble…” Psalm 50:15

I cried at the Mexican restaurant last Saturday. Normally a place of chips, salsa and laughter, I was reflecting on the day. I tried to describe it to my beloved through the tears.

My friend Paige and I wanted to help in some way. We had baked cornbread and cake to be given out with meals in local areas devastated by recent flooding but hoped to do something hands-on. We found that a neighbor’s family in Knott County had been hit hard by rising water July 28.

Traveling to the Beaver Creek area Saturday morning, we saw firsthand what an ocean of raging flood water could do. Pictures and videos had not done the devastation justice. We were stunned. Cars stood on end in the creeks and were smashed into guardrails. Mobile homes were torn in half. Enormous piles of debris were at every household. There was much to take in.

When we arrived at our destination, we found that the bulk of mud-out had already taken place. We could see the water line on the outside; everything on the inside had been deconstructed down to the studs. 

The lady of the house, a beautiful retired teacher, told us her husband had longed to live in that very house since he was a little boy. When it came on the market last year, they had jumped at the chance to buy it but were not able to begin remodeling then because her mother was dying. After caring for her and her death earlier this year, they were finally able to completely renovate the dream house. 

They’d just moved in.