Community Corner

Four Months After Irene, A Family Comes Home

The Louvis family moved seven times before coming home this week.

Loyla Louvis sat on her couch, a bewildered look on her face.

Louvis just got back into her flood-ravaged home this week — nearly four months after .

“I don’t know what else to do,” Louvis said. “At this point I’ve been kicked out of the middle class. I was barely hanging on, but with what’s going on with the economy and what’s gone on with our flood insurance it’s horrible.”

Find out what's happening in Waynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Louvis has lived in Wayne for 44 years. She grew up here. She’s lived in her current house for 13 years. She and her family were forced to evacuate from their home when Irene hit in late August. At first, the water wasn’t that high in her basement. Then it slowly rose. On Aug. 28, it seeped into, but not through, the first-floor floors and ruined them. Emergency workers rescued Louvis, her husband, and their three children, Elizabeth, 15, Ben, 13, and Jonathan, 11, in a boat. They moved seven times between then and now.

Louvis has been flooded before, but the flooding Irene caused was the worst she’d ever seen. She has flood insurance, but because it was the first time she filed for relief, she does not qualify for a buyout from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Find out what's happening in Waynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

“There were so many promises FEMA made that have never happened,” Louvis said.

The township is and . But there are people like Louvis who aren’t on the buyout lists.

“If you have no flood insurance and you were flooded from Irene, you got help. If you get flooded a lot you’re probably being bought out,” Louvis said. “But then there’s us. We’re in the middle and I feel like we’ve gone unheard.”

Louvis is worried that her house and yard contain mold and other contaminants. She said flood insurance does not cover mold remediation.

 “Around the perimeter of all the rooms there is a half-inch thick layer of dust,” Louvis said. “I don’t know what it is or what my kids are picking up when they outside. Someone should go out and test this stuff.”

The family lost nearly everything it had in the flood: clothes in closets, tools in the basement, and schoolwork. The children are homeschooled.

A Christmas tree sits on the living room floor. The house is devoid of decorations. Louvis’s husband George isn’t employed full time. Christmas presents will be scarce this year.

“I’m all tapped out and it breaks my heart,” Louvis said. “I’m at my wit’s end. We need help. I’m not looking for an abundance of anything. I’m looking for our basic needs being met.”

Diana Jeffrey and other of Louvis’s friends have set up a donation fund for the family.

Donations can be made online at: http://thelouvisfamily.chipin.com. There is also a wish list on Amazon.com and a registry at Bed Bath & Beyond. Many items on the registry cost less than $15.

“When she told me what happened to her, I just felt like I wanted to do something to help her,” Jeffrey said. “A lot of times when there’s a disaster there’s a lot of help initially, but then the giving tends to drop off. I just know that if people know the family's story, they'll help them."

Louvis said she wants a resolution to the problem before the next flood hurricane season.

“I don’t know what we’re in for,” Louvis said. “I can’t stay and I can’t afford to go.”


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here