ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, August 15, 1996              TAG: 9608150063
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: CHEAPSIDE 
SOURCE: Associated Press 

RAINS LEAVE HOMES IN NEED OF MAJOR REPAIRS

Deloris Moody was in her bedroom when her living room ceiling crashed to the floor.

``I heard a big boom, and I came out to see what happened. All that board had fallen,'' she said, pointing at a hole that swallowed half the ceiling. ``I called my children because I was scared.''

Dozens of poor homeowners on the Eastern Shore have experienced similar problems this summer: Rain falls, the roof leaks, then a ceiling collapses and half the house is unlivable.

Moody is one of 70 homeowners targeted for immediate help by Virginia's Eastern Shore Economic Empowerment and Housing Corp.

Besides those houses with immediate, serious problems, more than 150 need roof repairs, said Art Carter, executive director of the housing corporation.

``These weeks of rain have made a smoldering problem a disaster,'' said Carter, who also is chairman of the Northampton County Board of Supervisors. ``We have a crisis situation here.''

From January through July, the Eastern Shore received about 39 inches of rain - 20 inches more than what was received during the same period in 1995. The corporation started getting calls for help a month ago.

Carter said many of the affected homeowners are elderly. Others are working-poor.

Moody, 65, has lived in her house for 33 years. She said she's never had enough money to replace the roof. Each time it rains, more water pours onto the ceilings that are left, leaving them swollen and bowing, ready to come down on her head.

``There's nothing I can do,'' Moody said. ``Just look up while I walk.''

``Basically you live by the circumstances you're forced to live by,'' said Gene Savage, whose home also has suffered severe damage. ``The only thing we can really do is use buckets.''

In addition, flooded fields have left crops rotting at peak harvest times, outhouses are flooded and septic drainfields are collapsing, said Leona Mapp, housing coordinator for the corporation.

Mapp is trying to get local organizations to work together on the problem. Habitat for Humanity, the Shore Service Project and other volunteer groups might join the county governments and planning district commissions to repair the hardest-hit homes.

The corporation is far short of the $210,000 needed for materials to fix the 70 houses. Mapp said she can get $50,000 from a Housing and Urban Development loan program and maybe $5,000 from a state emergency fund.

Finding laborers is another challenge.

``We need bodies,'' she said. ``We need materials.''

LENGTH: Medium:   58 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Gene Savage stands in the family room of his home in
          Northampton where heavy rainfall on the Eastern Shore in recent 
          weeks caused the ceiling to collapse.