Van Buren family returns from 'wish trip,' loses possessions in flood

VAN BUREN, Mo. — Two days after the Buckner family returned from a “wish trip” to Florida, the family of four was forced to flee in the middle of the night as rising floodwaters reached the door of their Van Buren home.

Robert Buckner, his wife, Virginia “Ginny” Buckner, and their two daughters, Kimberly, 16, and Abigale, 15, lived on Alexander Street, four blocks from the Current River.

The Buckners had moved into their home in August, renting it from other family members. The house was next to their previous home.

“We’d been living in it, keeping it up; they were helping us out because our daughter had surgery, a heart transplant,” Ginny Buckner said.

She said moving into the house had lessened the financial burden resulting from trips to St. Louis for Abigale’s care.

Water from the Current River nearly submerged the Buckner family's home in Van Buren, Missouri.Courtesy to Daily American Republic

Abigale was born with Ebstein’s anomaly and atrial septal defect, she said.

Although Abigale was born with both conditions, Ginny said, doctors didn’t intervene with surgery at that time. Abigale didn’t undergo surgery until after she went into heart failure in December 2015.

Abigale was placed on the transplant list Feb. 25, 2016, and less than a month later, she had a new heart.

The recovery went well for about six months until the teen had a “virus reactivate in her system,” Ginny said. The teen had contracted cytomegalovirus from the donor heart.

In a transplant patient such as Abigale, it can “set up an infection in the kidneys, lungs, gastrointestinal system, brain, and it can even attack the heart,” said Ginny, who indicated her daughter had no antibodies to fight against the common virus.

After undergoing antiviral chemotherapy, Abigale went into remission in February.

Her viral counts were low enough a catheter was removed, and Abigale was taken off her medications, she said.

“We had just been cleared to travel and just gotten home from our wish trip two days before (the flood) happened,” Ginny said.

The Buckners returned home from Florida, where they visited attractions such as Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World and Clearwater Marine Aquarium, on April 27, and were “flooded out” April 29, said Ginny, who added the river had “never gotten that high.”

Her husband agreed.

“It got in the driveway of that house (next door) but didn’t get into the house,” Robert said. “This flood, it had rained while we were gone for a solid week.

“Then, when the big rain hit, there was nowhere for the water to go. Twenty-three feet we can handle.”

This time, Current River would crest April 30 at 37.2 feet.

About 11 p.m. the night before the crest, Robert said, Kimberly came in and said: “‘Dad, the river’s backing up to the door.’”

Robert said he and his family were able to go through the backyard and get their car out, but not before it became stuck in the neighbor’s yard, “our old yard. (The neighbor) pulled us out.”

At the time they were awakened, Ginny said, she and her husband had been in bed about a half-hour.

“Kimberly had wanted to stay up and watch a movie,” she said.

As a Beta student, Abigale had helped at Van Buren’s prom that night, which was shut down early because of the rising water.

“She was still keyed up from all the excitement,” said Ginny, who said they let the teen watch TV in the living room that night instead of sending her to her bedroom.

“His alarm was set for midnight,” said Ginny, who said her husband planned to check the water level and drive their vehicles out at that time.

“If we had waited for his midnight alarm, we wouldn’t have gotten anything out,” she said. “We would have had water in the house.”

Ginny said she is “very thankful” they didn’t have to walk through water to get out because “Abigale is so susceptible to infection.”

When the water finally receded, “we went back; I think we got our family picture,” which was the only thing that could be found, she said.

“Since everything was so destroyed, it was hard to dig through,” Ginny said of their home, and they didn’t want the “structure to come down on us.”

The family had to wait for an inspector to check the house before cleanup and recovery efforts could begin. The home was deemed not safe to enter.

Robert said the house floated in the water, as evidenced by how it sits on its cinderblocks.

The home’s concrete front porch, although it came out of the ground at some point, is what “kept it in place ... floating,” he said. “That’s why it wasn’t totally under water.”

“Everything we have is just gone,” Ginny said.

That included a red binder that contained all of Abigale’s hospital-discharge papers, test results and blood work. Ginny is trying to compile as many of the records as she can.

The little things Ginny lost that “meant something to me ... hospital bracelets,” she said. “I save those. I had my bracelets from where I had both girls.”

“Abby’s transplant bracelet ... that’s 10 hours that he and I sat up and worried that she was alive. ... The bracelet where I had Kimberly, that was 26 hours of labor, waiting for that beautiful girl to be born.”

For Abigale, what upset her the most was the loss of souvenirs she bought in Florida for her friends.

“The way I’ve dealt with this is I remember a little over a year ago, we almost lost a whole lot more,” Ginny said. “This is just stuff; we can accumulate more stuff with both of our daughters.”

Unlike many flood victims who had nowhere to stay, the Buckners moved in with Robert’s mother.

“Our preacher talked about a couple he saw cleaning up their yard,” Ginny said. “He asked: ‘How’s it going?’ The guy threw up his hands and said: ‘Fifty-three years right here in my yard.’

“The whole town, we all have issues, people dealing with cancer and other health issues,” as well as dealing with “where are we going to go; what are we going to do ....”

At this point, “there isn’t anything to rent in town,” Ginny said. “We have one possible (place) to look at ....”

It could mean relocating to another town, she said.

“We’d really rather not do that; we have kids who already have lost everything they have,” she said. “I’d hate to uproot them even more and take them away from their friends, their home, their school.”

Ginny said her job for the last year has been taking care of her daughter.

“We have a long-term plan ... to buy a house,” she said. “But, for now, it’s how to find somewhere to temporarily call home.”

Until that place is found, Robert said, they are “fortunate to have my mother ... we’re very glad and thankful for her.”