THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 14, 1996 TAG: 9608140329
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHEAPSIDE LENGTH: 97 lines
Rain falls, again. The roof leaks. Then suddenly a ceiling collapses and half the house is unlivable.
That's what has happened to dozens of low-income homeowners on the Eastern Shore this summer, and the number swells with each storm.
``These weeks of rain have made a smoldering problem a disaster,'' said Art Carter, chairman of the Northampton County Board of Supervisors and executive director of Virginia's Eastern Shore Economic Empowerment and Housing Corporation.
``We have a crisis situation here.''
Deloris Moody - one of 70 homeowners targeted for immediate help by the housing corporation - was in her bedrooom 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 hastily covered hole that swallowed half the ceiling. ``I called my children because I was scared.''
Moody, a 65-year-old mother of seven, has lived in the house for 33 years. She cleaned houses and worked in the fields when she was younger. Now she works as a nutrition aide in a local Head Start center, cooking meals for the children.
Moody said she never replaced the roof because she never had enough money to do it. And she still doesn't. So each time it rains, more water pours onto the ceilings that are left. They're swollen and bowing, threatening to come down on her head.
``There's nothing I can do,'' said Moody. ``Just look up while I walk.''
Carter said many of the affected homeowners are elderly and living on fixed incomes. Others are working poor, living frugally in houses that might have been built by their grandparents.
``They don't have discretionary money to do necessary repairs to their homes,'' he said.
Besides the 70 houses with immediate, serious problems, more than 150 have been identified as needing roof repairs. ``And that's just the tip of the iceberg,'' Carter said.
The houses were livable as long as it didn't rain much. But from January through July, the Eastern Shore has received about 39 inches of rain - 20 inches more than during the same period in 1995.
Damaged houses aren't the only problem. Flooded fields have left crops rotting at peak harvesting time. Pit privies and outhouses are flooded. And septic drainfields are collapsing, said Leona Mapp, housing coordinator for the corporation. .
People started turning to Carter's group for help a month ago.
``We got continuous calls the whole month of July,'' Mapp said. ``Finally we said: `We have to do something about this. This is getting to be an epidemic.' ''
Mapp is working to pull local organizations together to focus on the burgeoning problem. Habitat for Humanity, the Shore Service Project and other volunteer groups might join the county governments and planning district commission to repair the worst-affected homes.
But so far, Mapp hasn't much to work with. She said she can pull $50,000 from a Housing and Urban Development loan program for the prevention of homelessness, and maybe $5,000 from a state emergency fund. But that doesn't come anywhere near the $210,000 needed for materials to fix the 70 houses.
Finding laborers is another challenge.
``We need bodies. We need materials,'' she said.
Mapp hopes to organize two repair ``extravaganzas.'' One is scheduled for Aug. 23 to Aug. 30. The other will be Sept. 20 to Sept. 30. The object will be to fix as many homes as possible before the cold weather - and normally rainy season - arrives.
Even buying construction materials will be a challenge on the Eastern Shore, she said. There are only five building supply stores on the peninsula, and homeowners who can afford to repair their roofs have turned to them for materials.
Mapp hopes to get three tractor-trailer loads of roofing shingles through a charitible organization called Gifts in Kind. The shingles would normally cost $17,000, but Mapp said the housing corporation would only spend $1,800. At this point, where the rest of the repair materials will come from is anyone's guess.
Meanwhile, people like Gene and Recce Savage watch their crumbling homes with resignation. The Savages noticed water dripping from the ceiling one day. Recce Savage and her daughter were moving a couch from under the drip when the ceiling collapsed on the girl's head.
She wasn't hurt, and they laughed at the ridiculous figure she cut with plaster in her newly washed hair. But the Savages' situation is no laughing matter. They both lost their jobs when a local seafood plant closed. Now they're trying to start their own retail seafood business. But they don't have enough money to get the business going and repair the house.
``Basically, you live by the circumstances you're forced to live by,'' Savage said. ``The only thing we can really do is use buckets.'' MEMO: WANT TO HELP?
To provide labor, donate money or supplies, call the Eastern Shore
housing corporation at (804) 442-4509 or write to VESEEHC, PO Box 814,
Nassawadox, Va. 23413. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by BILL TIERNAN, The Virginian-Pilot
As Gene Savage and his family moved a couch from under a drip in
their Exmore home, the ceiling collasped. The Savages are just one
of about 70 low-income households with severe damage because of
this year's heavy rains. by CNB