Light and relief
By Melinda Harrell
Published in News on December 1, 2016 9:57 AM
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Ray Fox installs new drywall in the livingroom ceiling of Sharon Blount's home Tuesday.
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Burnell Nolt, right and Raymond Fox, of Weaverland Mennonite Disaster service evaluate the remain steps of the restoration process in the kitchen area of Sharon Blount's home Tuesday.
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Sharon Blount views a cell phone video with Raymond Fox, the lead coordinator of The Weaverland Mennonite Disaster Services team in her living room Tuesday. The video captures the team while they wear stilts and hang drywall. In the video Blount can be heard repeating the words "god bless you" and joyfully laughing.
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Hurricane Matthew waters destroyed a large portion of Sharon Blount's belongings in October. On Tuesday, she spoke about her experiences during the storm and about the items that are now piled up on her back porch as a result.
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Burnell Nolt, left, Raymond Fox, right, and Ray Fox of the Weaverland Mennonite Disaster Service in the process of restoring the kitchen area in Sharon Blount's home Tuesday. Blount's home sustained major damage when Hurricane Matthew rains breached her roof with the kitchen recieving the majority of the damage.
Sharon Blount's laughter blends with the sounds of power tools and hammers as her home on Walnut Street undergoes long-overdue repairs.
Volunteers from Weaverland Mennonite Disaster Services are hard at work removing and replacing severely damaged drywall in the back part of her house.
They are smiling and carrying on a pleasant conversation with Blount as if they had known each other for years.
"I told y'all, this is y'all's house, y'all do what you want," she said with a laugh as the volunteers asked her if she'd mind if they unplugged her refrigerator.
This disaster relief team arrived to Blount's home on Tuesday to carry on with a project to repair her home from damage incurred by Hurricane Matthew.
For Blount, Weaverland was much more than a relief, but also a light in the dark days that followed in the wake of Hurricane Matthew.
She said she discovered the program after talking with a man in line while she at City Hall.
She had called Pineview Baptist Church, where the group stationed out of Pennsylvania is being hosted, and within a week, her home was being repaired.
"I said 'My God, I didn't think there was nobody like that existed in this world - in this day and time,'" she said.
"And I thank them so much. This makes them the third crew this month because each week they change. It has been a godsend. Because I had no idea how I was going to get all this done."
She said insurance provides but so much money, which she received, but it was only enough to get some supplies with.
"So what I got, I am working with that, and they are doing the work for free," she said.
Raymond Fox, Weaverland Mennonite Disaster Services coordinator and board member to the Weaverland Conference of Mennonite Churches (the coalition that operates the relief program) said volunteers from various Mennonite churches in Pennsylvania respond to disaster areas to help rebuild.
Fox has been a member of the program since it began in 2006 and has volunteered his time in New Orleans, after Hurricane Katrina, in Tennessee, after tornadoes ripped through the area, in New Jersey, after Hurricane Sandy, and more recently in Windsor, after massive flooding.
Fox said those in need of help only need to buy the supplies and volunteers come into the area in week-long shifts and complete all the labor free of charge.
"I like to help people," he said.
"I feel like it is our responsibility to help people in disaster. It is like a two-fold reason. We feel it is our responsibility as God's children to be a help to people that have a disaster, and it is another way to do something for our country. Those two reasons propel me to be here. I could also say that I enjoy the opportunity to work with our youth. We don't have as many youth here on this job, but it is our primary, to get our youth to learn to do something for other people too."
For three weeks now volunteers from the Weaverland Disaster Relief group have replaced drywall and rotted beams in Blount's home.
On Tuesday, Burnell Nolt was working in her kitchen and a room adjacent to it. The father of seven traveled 365 miles from Peach Bottom, Pa. to help in the relief efforts in Wayne County.
His wife, Mary Jane, came with him to cook for the group at Pineview Baptist Church, where they will call home for the week.
Nolt said the motivation to travel so far to help people he had never met was simple -- meeting different people and going to various places is interesting. And, in some way he hopes the efforts of he and wife could shine a "Christian light."
"Just seeing the different areas and meeting different people and seeing how people live compared to what we do," he said. "And while we are at it we are doing something worthwhile."
"Hopefully, they can see there is a God to respect and people can work together and enjoy it."
For Blount, Weaverland volunteers fulfilled her need of light and hope.
She had stayed in her home on Walnut Street for more than a month without lights following the storm after the city temporarily condemned the property for safety reasons.
As the days crept by, Blount said she felt the full weight of the aftermath.
"The water just came in and came in and everything just started falling, but I tried to stay here because, you know, if you leave your house they will break into your house," she said.
"That is why I stayed too, because I got depressed about it. You know, my insurance money came in, but it didn't pay enough to do what I needed done."
She tried to wait out Hurricane Matthew. She had stayed during Hurricane Floyd and Fran, and had decided that she certainly wouldn't be leaving for this storm.
She said her neighbors were wary of the weather and the rising waters so Blount invited them to stay at her house, and as the waters rose higher and higher, they became nervous, and she reluctantly evacuated the home she has lived in since 1991.
As soon as the waters receded, she returned.
She found 6 feet and 4 inches of water in her basement had totally destroyed her electrical system.
In a twist of more unfortunate events, she had contracted out workers to fix her roof before the storm, but they took her money and left without ever finishing the job, so her roof was not able to support the weight of the water and rains, and the drywall in much of her home was saturated to the point of uselessness.
"I couldn't do nothing but cry," she said.
"I had been taken for granted so much by me being a female and not knowing much about this stuff. People will take your money and promise to do this and that and take your money and leave."
As Blount sat in the home that she had lived in for around 25 years, she was unsure about what to do, but wait for the insurance adjusters.
Wait to fix the electrical work that would have the label of "condemned" stripped away.
Wait for her lights to come back on.
She said that in times of uncertainty and depression she truly did not know how she was going to have her home repaired, but when she was told that Weaverland was going to help she was relieved.
"I can breathe a little better now, to see it come about like it has. I am not as anxious. I am thankful. And the roof I got out there is beautiful," she said.
The timeline for her home's completion is yet to be determined. She still has to buy appliances that she has lost and other repairs need to be addressed. But Weaverland will remain in the area until all the needs of the community are met, and they are glad to be able to do it.
"It's a blessing getting to know people," Fox said.
"We are all people with needs, and we hurt when disaster strikes. We don't want to really just work we want to encourage those that suffer loss."
Weaverland Mennonite Disaster Services will be available in the county as long as there is need. For more information about getting relief help, call Weaverland Disaster Service at 717-672-1140 or Pineview Baptist Church in Goldsboro at 919-735-9382.