Rebuilding Caruthersville

~ The April 2 tornado destroyed nearly half the town

CARUTHERSVILLE, Mo. -- The view from inside Aaro Hayes' mobile home on 19th Street in Caruthersville is a reminder of what a few minutes of nature's fury can do.

Last March, Hayes sat inside her home and watched neighbor Polly Foreman's children, Corbin and Darius, play in the front yard. Today a cement foundation sits on the property, and the Foremans live several blocks away in a Federal Emergency Management Agency mobile home park.

As the weather grew warm last year, Hayes anxiously awaited the blossoming shade trees that lined 19th Street. But last year they never blossomed. The trees, still standing, are gnarled without any buds. Hayes isn't sure if she'll see any leaves on the trees again this year.

Hayes always enjoyed visiting with her neighbors especially when spring approached. But today, only two other homes remain on the block. The rest were destroyed by the powerful F3 tornado that ripped through Caruthersville April 2.

As of Wednesday, the house had been mostly repaired with new additions.

The tornado destroyed half the town of 6,000 people. More than 240 homes were destroyed and another 375 were severely damaged.

As the one-year anniversary approaches, some residents like Hayes and Foreman fear the next few months and the tornado-prone weather of spring.

"When the hard winds get to blowing, it scares me," Hayes said last week. "I say, 'Oh Lord, please don't let it happen once again.'"

Almost one year after a tornado damaged this apartment building, much of the wreckage still stood Wednesday. (DIANE WILSON)

On the night of April 2, Hayes was alone in her mobile home when the tornado ripped through. The strong winds toppled her home, which landed upside down. A board landed on the back of the elderly woman, who was rushed to Pemiscot Memorial Hospital where she spent a week recovering from lacerations.

"Sometimes I have nightmares about that night, and I'll wake up in a cold sweat" Hayes said.

The lifelong Caruthersville resident has been living in the FEMA mobile home since July. Recently, she received a letter from FEMA stating she had confirmed an agreement to "remit monthly payments to FEMA for the rental" of her mobile home when she moved in. The payments were required since she received $5,000 of additional living expenses from her insurance company. Now Hayes is required to pay about $4,500 to FEMA for living in the mobile home.

Melissa Janssen, a spokeswoman with FEMA, said there are cases when the agency charges rent to live in its mobile homes.

"After we move someone in, and we find out at a later date that they've received insurance benefits for rental assistance, then that's duplicating services and it's against the law," she said. "If they've received that assistance and we find out about it, then we're obligated to charge them rent."

FEMA may also require rental payments if residents need to continue living in a FEMA shelter after 18 months.

Hayes said she didn't know the rental payments were required when she signed FEMA papers to live in the mobile home.

"Just where am I going to get that money?" she asked. "I would have paid the rent if they would have told me up front."

Hayes used the insurance money to clean up her property and to pay her son rent (she lived with him for one month after the tornado struck).

"My life has been OK, but I've been going through pure hell with these people from FEMA," Hayes said. "Im just ready to get my own trailer."

Hayes plans to move out of her FEMA mobile home by April 1 and live with her daughter in Cape Girardeau until she purchases a new mobile home for her lot in Caruthersville.

"When I get my own trailer, I won't have any furniture because it was destroyed. But at least I'll have a place of my own," she said.

Like her neighbor on 19th Street, Foreman had her own struggles with FEMA, but she praises the agency for providing assistance. For six months after the tornado, Foreman, her two sons and her mentally handicapped cousin lived in a tiny FEMA travel trailer on her 19th Street property.

In September, Foreman was still living in the trailer's cramped quarters. She didn't know who would rebuild her home or how she would celebrate Christmas with her sons. The trailer had no room for a Christmas tree.

"It was pretty miserable," Foreman said. "We were cramped up in there and felt we were living on top of each other."

In November, Foreman and her family moved into a temporary mobile home park FEMA constructed in Caruthersville. Since then, the family has been living in a three-bedroom mobile home.

"Things are going real good now. We have space in there. I've found someone who will rebuild my house in June. Things are looking a lot better than they did several months ago," Foreman said last week.

Caruthersville Mayor Diane Sayre said the town is "making steady progress."

"One of the first issues we tackled was the debris removal, and we're starting the final phase of that," Sayre said.

More than 50 building permits for new homes and another 100 permits for home repairs have been issued since the tornado.

FEMA's presence in Caruthersville is also not as noticeable as it was last summer.

According to FEMA's guidelines, the agency can provide services for up to 18 months following a disaster. FEMA will re-evaluate the situation in September to determine if services are still necessary in the town.

Of the 100 mobile homes in the FEMA mobile home park, only 37 are still occupied, and only 67 travel trailers or mobile homes remain on private lots. Last April, more than 160 temporary housing units were dispersed to private lots.

"People are either moving back into their homes or have found better interim housing," Janssen said. "They've been making progress in Caruthersville."

To date, the city of Caruthersville has received almost $1.7 million in assistance from FEMA for debris removal, emergency protective measures and various city infrastructure repairs. Caruthersville residents have received about $2.4 million from FEMA for home repairs, rental assistance or other assistance.

Rebuilding the school

Throughout Caruthersville, signs that read "vote yes for a new high school" sit in front yards, some of homes that still have noticeable tornado damage. On April 3, voters in Caruthersville will decide whether to approve a $4.5 million bond issue to help finance construction of a new high school. The existing school was severely damaged by the tornado.

Superintendent Nick Thiele knows it will be tough to get the bond issue -- which would increase property taxes 25 percent -- passed in a town where residents are still trying to rebuild their lives.

At the start of the new school year in September, Caruthersville high school students began attending class in 28 trailers on the football field, where classes are still held.

The school district lost about 60 students from the previous school year, which Sayre attributes to a lack of rental property in the city.

"We have lost some families, there's no doubt about that," she said. "Our biggest problem is that we lost our biggest apartment complex in the tornado. There's not really any rental property in the city, so there's nowhere for these families who were displaced from their homes to live."

The city has been working with the Delta Area Economic Opportunity Corporation, a not-for-profit organization that receives local, state and federal funding to respond to unmet needs in the Bootheel counties. DAEOC plans to construct 15 affordable rental homes in Caruthersville in about a month, Sayre said.

"Obviously, coming up on the one-year anniversary, it will cause a lot of memories to resurface," Sayre said. "With the weather the way it is, it does make you a little unnerved. But in the event of another disaster -- and God forbid we do get hit again -- our residents are very resilient and determined. I think we can rise to the occasion should this ever happen again."

jfreeze@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 246