News

Mobile home park residents thankful to be alive after flood

Jeffrey Liebert Sr., stands next to the line on his home where flood water reached last week.

By Amy McCraw, Published: October 3, 2024

Fonda Owen lost everything inside her mobile home when it flooded during the epic tropical storm last Friday.

But as she sorted through what was left of her belongings on Thursday afternoon, Owen, 65, was just thankful to be alive.
“I have my life,” she said. “At any age, you can rebuild.”
Owen was one of several residents of Hendersonville Mobile Home Estates who returned to the mobile home park on Spartanburg Highway on Thursday to salvage what they could from their damaged homes.
One woman who lived in the park died in the flood, according to park residents and Hendersonville Police Chief Blair Myhand. The death in the mobile home park was one of two flood-related deaths in the city, Myhand said.
Residents of the park said the woman, whose name was unavailable, died when flood waters swept her away as she exited her home. Myhand said he thought the woman drowned in her home.
Some people in the mobile home park were rescued by a boat crew from outside Hendersonville, he said.
A stream that runs through the mobile home park grew to a raging river as the remnants of Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina. Water flooded into most of the homes in the neighborhood that calls itself Hendersonville’s First Retirement Park.
Owen, who was away visiting friends when the flood hit, returned to her home on Tuesday to learn the news of her neighbor’s death and see the damage to her home.
“I was devastated,” Owen said of her reaction when she first saw the damage in her home. “Everything is like a sponge.”
Like others in the park, Owen was busy on Thursday pulling everything out of her home to see what she might be able to keep. She said she did not know if her mobile home could be salvaged.

Police call for evacaution

Nancy Kelin, 87, worked with her sons and daughter-in-law on Thursday to box up what she could from her mobile home.
She said she planned to move to Missouri with one of her sons and a daughter-in-law.
Kelin said was waiting in the home of her other son who also lives in the park when emergency responders arrived the night of the flood and told them to evacuate.
“I’ve never been evacuated before, never experienced. We were at his place and the water was still rising,” Kelin said.
Jeffrey Liebert Sr., 67, said he was also home during the flood when police, who were just outside the park, called out and told him to evacuate.
Liebert and his wife spent a couple of nights in their car before returning to their home to clean up. Other residents of the park remained in a shelter on Thursday, he said.
Liebert had to push his door open against about three feet of water when the evacuation order came.
He reached safety outside the park but tried to return by wading through about chest-deep water to help the park’s manager.
The manager chose to wait for rescue boats to arrive to move him to safety, Liebert said.
At one point during his escape, Liebert said he looked over at the street where the woman who died lived. He said he saw high water flowing down her street.
“I wish I was over there to save her,” he said.