God is Good

By Tina V. Bryson

In the darkness of night with flood waters rushing around, the Ritchie family sat huddled together, cold and wet. They watched, by intermittent flashes of lighting in the night sky, as the home they had purchased just two years before was knocked completely off its foundation by another home that was drifting at high speed in the floodwaters. In an instant, they lost everything they had worked for.

Generous donations to Christian Appalachian Project (CAP) created an opportunity to partner with Appalachia Service Project (ASP). This strategic partnership will build 10 new homes for families who were impacted by the July 2022 floods. The $250,000 grant from CAP helped families primarily in Floyd and Knott Counties get back into homes that are safe, warm, and dry.

Della Ritchie is one of the homeowners helped through the grant-funded partnership. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been through a lot, but so has our whole community,” she said. “To have so many organizations helping us, you can’t really put it into words how thankful you are and how blessed you feel.”

The Ritchies are raising their teenage granddaughter and were blessed to have a neighbor who offered their home to the family until the construction was complete.

“You really take for granted what you’ve got until it’s gone. This time the year before, we had just been enjoying life like every family does,” Ritchie said. “The night of the floods, I had been working in the garden all day and was still up canning green beans. The rain was so hard and so fast. I was on my knees praying, ‘God please help us.’ I just knew it was not going to be good. It was too much rain.”

Her daughter called at 2 a.m. and said the water was already on her porch, even though she lived in a location much more elevated than where her parents were located. Ritchie went to her back door and saw that the waters had already started to come in.

By the time she was able to wake everyone and gather their pets, the water would have been over their heads if they had attempted to walk out. Her husband, running a temperature from COVID, had to make a decision.

“My husband barely got us out on his shoulders,” Ritchie recalled. Had they waited, a mobile home drifting in the water would have hit their granddaughter’s bedroom. “He came and got each of us one at a time and carried us to safety across the road. You just don’t imagine. All you can see is your home being ripped from its foundation.”

Regular homeowner’s insurance doesn’t cover flooding, and FEMA reported that only 4% of people applying for housing recovery assistance after the July 2022 floods had flood insurance. The maximum FEMA grant per household is less than $40,000, and it was the only source of funding for many residents in the area. The Ritchies, like many families, fell in the gray area: making too much to qualify for some government assistance programs, but not enough to be able to manage rebuilding a home on their own.

The Ritchie's home was completed in December and they looked forward to having their whole family together for Christmas. The Ritchie's have not been able to gather with her father-in-law for many years because they had no handicap access.

“I am so overjoyed,” Ritchie said. “They put in an accessible ramp to our new home. We are looking forward to the holidays. God is good.”