BLACK MOUNTAIN, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Dorothy “DiDi” Vitale bought her Black Mountain home with the idea of having plenty of space for her large family to visit.
Four months ago, Tropical Storm Helene brought trees crashing down all over her property, severely damaging the roof and foundation of her house. The once roomy home has become just a few livable spaces. The rooms downstairs were flooded with mud and the walls cracked. There’s a hole in the kitchen ceiling upstairs.
It was a nightmare, Vitale said.
“It was horrendous. I was here with my two dogs and my cat. Everything was so loud. We were freaking out. It was dark. I was just pretty panicky because I heard, this horrendous sound like Niagara Falls,” she said pointing out her bedroom to the space that used to be a deck. “When I opened the door from my bedroom, I saw this torrent of water washing away the earth from my house and I slammed the door closed and came back and then that’s when the trees started falling.”
The storm left trees on her roof, water and mud in her basement and cracks in the foundation and walls. Air coming in through her tarped roof has made the home cold, and the mold now covering the basement walls has made it hard to breathe for Vitale, who has a history of lung disease.
Her bedroom is where she spends most of her time now. It’s warm and mold-free. And there’s plenty of room for her and her dogs and cat.
Meanwhile, the rest of her house is deteriorating while she struggles to get help making repairs.
“It started out with some damage … but it got worse,” Vitale said.
Recent rains flooded the lower level where Helene had piled inches of mud. The mold is getting worse.
Volunteers, a church and FEMA to the rescue
Vitale, who has spent her life helping others, is now asking for help. She has a list of names written on a sheet of paper. Beside each is the service or dollar amount they’ve given.
“I’ve done volunteer work all my life. It’s really hard when you’re a giver to be begging for help,” she said. “My church, St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, which is a tiny little church in Swannanoa, it’s probably the smallest Catholic church in North Carolina, and they kindly put up a $30,000 deposit for one of the contracts.”
Volunteers, including God’s Pit Crew, cleaned her yard and cleared the deck and carport debris from around her home. And numerous individuals have given donations.
FEMA gave her $14,000, but she needs more. Vitale goes to or calls the Disaster Recovery Center every day.
“They know me by name,” she said.
Vitale said she and a friend applied for FEMA assistance on the same day. An inspector checked her friend’s property just days after she filed a claim, Vitale said. But Vitale was left waiting.
“Thirty days go by. I was calling them. I was going there. I was stressed out trying to get somebody to tell me why haven’t they sent an inspector here,” Vitale said. “Finally, they sent an inspector on day 33.”
“It’s stressful enough to go through all this and then you have to get aggravated by fighting with FEMA.”
The FEMA funds are nowhere close to what is needed to repair Vitale’s home, so she’s appealing the agency’s findings.
She said she’s been advised by one of the contractors to keep fighting.
“I mean it’s hard because I work all my, I work so hard all my life. It’s not like I’m looking for a handout. I just need help,” she said looking at the pile of estimates for repair work.
According to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety, FEMA representatives have visited 132,598 homes across the state and provided $305,746,811 to survivors.
828newsNOW has asked FEMA for information about the average wait time for help, the number of denials and the average amount paid on claims. This story will be updated with that information as soon as it is available.
Getting help
Repair estimates include $18,000 for the basement, $5,000 for the roof, $10,000 for the foundation and structural integrity and $76,000 for the bulk of the other damage.
But even with the donations, Vitale is still tens of thousands of dollars short.
The damage wasn’t just to her home. Letters, memorabilia, photos and record albums were also destroyed in the storm.
“It’s just stuff. But it still hurts,” she said looking at the wall where a photo Burt Reynolds signed for her still hangs.
And then there’s the mental toll all of this has taken. Post-traumatic stress disorder has also made an appearance.
“I’m just now starting to be able to get a night’s sleep,” Vitale said. “You know, when you’re sitting on the couch and things like trees are falling on the roof and water is pouring in. It’s horrendous.
“You know, you go to sleep at night and you have nightmares that the trees are going to fall through the roof and kill you or that the house is going to float away.”
Thank God for our church, St. Margaret Mary Catholic Church, which has been providing people with someone to talk with, she said.
Vitale has also tried a different tact.
“When I was really feeling badly, I just started, well, you know, I’d think I’m being so selfish,” she said. “You know, you kind of survive and I’m like, what am I complaining about? The stuff in the house and people lost their entire homes.
“So, I’m like, why am I feeling sorry for myself? All these people are dead and their families lost their loved ones. And so for therapy, I just decided, well, I need to do something. So, I started taking a drive to the worst areas. I mean, it sounds bizarre, but I thought, here I am feeling sorry for myself. I still don’t have part of my house. So, I just started taking a drive to all the worst areas so I could be appreciative that I was still alive.”
But still, the bills keep coming … utilities, property taxes, etc.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Vitale.
Feeling grateful
Despite everything, Vitale keeps going. There’s hot tea and a book to read, the occasional meal out with friends.
And there’s appreciation.
“It’s like everybody that’s helping me, I’m keeping a strict list, and I can, hopefully, down the road, you know, be able to do something to pay this back some way,” she said.
Volunteers from across the country have been in Western North Carolina helping Helene victims.
“God’s Pit Crew, I know I had never even heard of them. They came, I guess most of the group was from Virginia. But these guys brought their own heavy equipment, and did that for free,” Vitale said. “Three and a half months after, they’re still around. That group, it just touches your heart.”