MCEWEN, Tenn. (WTVF) — It is a common feeling among many in Humphreys County. The past year has been the longest and fastest year of their life. In an instant, everything was taken in the flood that hit the area one year ago and rebuilding takes time and money.
“We can't afford to buy a new piece of property, so we just have to make this one better,” McEwen resident Bobby Hipshire told NewsChannel 5’s Carrie Sharp.
He and his wife, Casey, have spent a lot of money raising the elevation of the land where their trailer sits. He also poured a concrete pad to help secure it in place.
“You can see it’s bolted to the concrete pad and steel bars holding it into the concrete,” he said.
Hipshire wanted to make sure what they experienced on the morning of Aug. 21, 2021, never happened again. In less than five minutes, the water went from covering the ground, to inside their trailer, and as high as the kitchen cabinets.
“Water everywhere. Then the water started rising and the house got a little lopsided,” remembers Tom Bob, 9.
What happened next is hard to fathom. Bobby knocked out the kitchen window and “started grabbing kids and dogs and my wife and threw them up on the roof and got up and rode it out that's all we could do.”
Five hours later, they were rescued, and the slow tedious task of rebuilding their lives started.
“You just tighten up your boot laces and get to work. That's all you can do,” says Bobby.
A “new to them” trailer is now securely in place and Bobby has replaced $250,000 worth of equipment he lost for his tree cutting service. There is still much to do to get their property back to the way it was.
But between jobs, school and raising their son, one year later it's still a work in progress. And while so much was lost, one thing remains certain for this family.
“This is home, and I'm not leaving,” says Casey.
Bobby and Casey say the kindness and generosity of their neighbors and friends have sustained them and kept them going.
