Over 6 feet of water destroys McCaysville homes in flood

I want to continue our coverage with Eli Jordan. Eli, you've been out moving at different points. When I saw you, I believe that was either 1230. You were inside of a house that looked like it was destroyed. Watch us or walk us through what you're seeing now. All right. Hey, Eric, you know, I'm right here at the Fighting Town Creek, right where it meets the Chicoa River. And to give you an idea of just, you know, how devastating a flood is, not only to the property damage and all that, All that, but how it just, just. Just hurts people's lives. A kid's doll is hung up on the barbed wire next to this pumping plant here. Now, the pumping plant, it's not working right now. It got flooded, so, you know, all the wastewater and things like that, it has nowhere to go. It's just kind of like just in the flood. But earlier at 1230, you mentioned, I did see Tommy and Sandra Edwards. Their house, they're a retired couple. They live right on Fighting Town Creek. We got video of that earlier. We walked through the house, and the house was just completely devastated. Six feet of water went through that house. They had Harley Davidsons in there in the garage, totally submerged, ruined, and all their belongings just gone. Luckily, though, they were able to get their dog Willow out, but I did speak to Sandra about their experience. It rained all day yesterday, and it was storming last night around 8, 7, 8 o'clock, back to back. And I was watching the weather, getting alerts, but it was warning Blue Ridge, not here. So I thought we were okay, so we went to bed at 1130. He got up at about 2 o'clock to go to the bathroom and said our house was flooded. And I jumped up, and I come out into the living room and seen stuff floating. Then I looked out and seen the water over our deck, and I said, we've got to get out now. So we just grabbed the dog, got out, he almost got locked in the house, and it just happened quick. How scary was it? It was scary. I was hyperventilating. I called 911 because I thought he was stuck and he couldn't get out. The doors vacuum locked and locked him in the house. How was he able to get out? He finally got the double doors open and come out and had the way out to my vehicle. One of my vehicles was up here and we were able to get it out. How high did the water get? It got over six foot in the house. Over six foot, and the power crews are out here. They're going to try and get this pumping station back in order. But I'm up here at the Copper Curve Package Store, and I want you to just check this out, how deep this silt is all along through here. So there's not only just flood damage to houses, but all along the roads. They're going to have to clean up and, you know, get excavators out here and handle all that. And you might be able to see the flood line up here. I'm not sure. But it's just, you know. They're just now getting, you know, an idea of all the damages. The water is going down. We've seen the GEMA helicopter flying over, or the public safety helicopter flying over. And, you know, people are just, you know, we've seen excavators coming in. And people are just starting to absorb it, process it. And now they're, you know, figuring out... You know, everybody's safe, it is safe, and they're just trying to figure out where to pick up and start over because many, many people here are going to have to start all over. Flooding, you know, flooding insurance is always hairy. And so no telling what's going to be facing these residents here up here in Copper Hill and over in McKaysville over the next few months as they try to recover and rebuild after these devastating floods. Eric? Yeah, Eli Jordan, you make a point that a lot of people don't think about. It's not just the water that we're looking at the damage, but that soot and that mud that's under as well. That's really destroying a whole bunch of stuff as well. Eli Jordan, thanks so much. You've been out there talking with the people, getting that human aspect of the damage and that really an idea of what's to come in the cleanup ahead.