One year ago, Hurricane Helene devastated the communities of Neva, Butler and Trade in Johnson County. Many families lost their homes and all of their belongings to raging floodwaters that pooled in the valleys of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Michael Davis is from Butler, Tennessee. He played banjo in a bluegrass band for decades. He and his family lost everything to the flooding. Now, with the help of Pastor Dwayne Dickson and the First Christian Church of Mountain City, he’s getting back on his feet.
Here is Michael’s story, in his own words:
My name is Michael Davis. I live in Johnson County, Tennessee, in Butler. And we were flooded out on the 27th of September and lost everything we had.
We had a mobile home sitting here – a 16-by-80 foot mobile home – and we knew the storm was coming. And I woke up about 5 o'clock because the wind was beating on the side of the mobile home. And about 20 minutes after that, a tornado come down the hill and was throwing trees all out here in the yard and across the trailer and in the backyard and in the road.
And then the hurricane hit, and it blew and it blew and it blew. We figured the trailer won't hold together through that, but it did, thank the Lord. And when it got over, the sun come out. And me and my son, his wife and two boys and my wife went in the yard and was standing in the yard. And our creek has always rose from this end of it over here. This water didn't come from there. This water come from down the road.
And it kept getting deeper and deeper. And we hauled up boogie up the mountain, and stayed there until we could come back down. And when we come back down, we had nothing or nowhere to go. My son's house – he had a two story house right here – and had toppled it over. If they would have been asleep, they'd been gone down the river.
My trailer was sitting here, but it was full of water, so we lost our clothes and 54 years worth of bluegrass – being on the road – pictures. Our baby pictures. Our wedding pictures. All of it. Only thing we saved is what you see in here. That was it.
I found my banjo. I had to clean it out and everything. But I kept my banjo and I got everything cleaned up. And so far, it seems to be working.
But other than that, between me and my son both, we lost six vehicles. We lost four cars and two trucks. All the lawn mowers. A lot of tools. All the outdoor furniture.
I was ready to give up. At 70 years old, you don't have nowhere to go. You're naked. You don't even have a damn toothbrush. And no money. What do you do?
So, those first days and weeks after the storm, where did y’all go?
The first week after we got out of here I went and stayed with my daughter in Erwin. And they already had a house-full. So there was 11 of us in that little house. And the camper that's out there right now just happened to be at my wife's mother's house, and we stayed in it last winter. Coldest winter I've ever spent my life.
It cost $700 a month to heat that camper, just in propane. And I remember one night it got real cold, below zero, I think. And we got up that morning and had to take the hair dryer, and thaw the lock out before I could open the door. And that was with the gas furnace running, and it still froze. And then you got sewer that runs out of the camper. We hooked into the sewer here. It stayed froze half the winter.
Samaritan’s Purse come down here – a lady – and she said, ‘I'm gonna ask you a question.’ I said, ‘well, go ahead.’ She said, ‘are you mad at God?’ I said, ‘no, ma'am. I'm here. My family's here. All this can be replaced eventually, sooner or later, but you can't replace somebody's life.’
How did you manage to get help with your new house?
The man upstairs, is all I can tell you.
It wasn't long after the flood to the brought the houses in here, or it's in two pieces, but they brought the two pieces in here, and they want no windows in it. There was two doors on it, but that was it. Nothing was in. It just a shell. But it brought them in there.
I had heard somebody saying they were bringing some donations into the church, some materials and stuff. And I just went there to see if I could get some materials. And [Dwayne Dickson] asked me, he said, ‘well, what’re we putting them in?’ I said, ‘well, I've got a house – Amish-built house – ordered, and we've paid for it, but we don't have nothing to put in.’ And he said, ‘well, we'll fix it.’
Two or three weeks after that, he had crews coming in. And they came in droves; men, women, young people, old people – God's people – and they worked and they worked and they worked and they worked. And I stayed out of their way. And me and my wife would come in here and work at night when they left.
We met a lot of people. That quilt right there; a man come back down here that helped plumb this house, and his sister made quilts. And he brought them here. I was sitting here one evening, he knocked on the door about 8 o'clock. He said, ‘I brought you a quilt my sister made.’ He said, ‘I wanted to come back and see a finished house. I've always worked on ‘em, but never got to see one after they're finished. I wanna see one that's finished.’ I said, ‘well, it's pretty close to being finished. I got a couple boards here.’ It's close enough. He brought that quilt from, I think he said he was way on the other side of Virginia somewhere.
But the house is working out good. All you see here is what was, what was done through the First Christian Church of Mountain City. It's all done through them. And we did have another church come by here and asked me what I was going to do for heat. I said, ‘well, I got a little gas heater.’ I said, ‘we could probably get by with that.’ He said, ‘well, we don't want you sleeping in that.’ I said, ‘well …’ So he said, ‘let me make a phone call, and I’ll call you right back.’ And they donated the split unit, and he come put it in.
When did y’all move out of the camper and into the house?
Close to two months [ago]. All this happened in way less than a year. I mean, put back together. I mean I’m in a home in less than a year's time. Come from zero, I mean, absolutely zero to back to some kind of normality or whatever, where you can lay down and sleep or go to the bathroom when you need to, cook when you need to. We made it through it. I hope it never happens in my lifetime again. I feel sorry as I can be for people it has happened to, and for people it's gonna happen to.
What does healing after Helene mean to you?
Healing to me, after what happened, is a 50/50 split. It's getting back on your feet again, but it's how you got back on your feet. Who helped you get back on your feet? 90% of what was replaced was from Dwayne Dickson and his crew and the people that come to work here. Thank God for all of them. If it hadn't been for that, and that man right there, I wouldn't be here right now. You're back on your feet again, but you can't forget how you got there, or how you would have not got there if you wouldn't have had people like Dwayne and other people. You wouldn't have got there at my age. I'm 70 years old. I'm not able to work anymore, and without God's people, I wouldn't be here.
This interview and transcript have been lightly edited for clarity.
