Awakened by the sound of rushing water, Tamara McNabb was scared Thursday morning. “It was roaring pretty well.”
“It was about 4:15,” Tamara said. “I woke up Cameron and Kayna - her bed was surrounded by water. We got them up, got the cats. Cameron saw the water running by the front window.”
The McNabbs live on Bill Billings Road, Garfield, with their 16-year-old daughter who had a friend over that night. Their son just left for college. The water in the bedroom where the girls were sleeping was about a foot and a half deep.
It was still dark, still raining.
The electricity had not yet gone out so there was light from an outside light.
The four - Cameron, Tamara, their daughter Kayna and herfriend - carrying their cats, waded through waste-high water to their car, which, as Tamara said, “thankfully started.”
“The girls were carrying the cats. I was carrying meds and the computer. That’s all I could grab.
Cameron had the back of our shirts,” Tamara said. She said the girls did very well. “They were both very composed. They did as they were told.”
Tamara is tall, 5’11”, so wastehigh water for her was more like chest high for the two teen-aged girls. Cameron said he held onto the girls’ shirt collars, but lost his grip and Kayna went down.
“Kayna went down. She popped back up about 10 feet away,” Cameron said.
“I can’t swim. It freaked me out,” Tamara said.
They drove to higher ground on their property, but could not get on the road or away from the property because of the highwater.
“We watched the water come towards us,” she said.
Cameron called 911 and the four could see the lights of thevehicles when emergency personnel arrived, but Cameron said the fi refighters could not get tothe family.
As it became daylight, the McNabbs began to assess the damage, but still could not get o◊the property.
They took pictures as the waters receded.
Shortly after 8 a.m., Charlie Brewer took a fl at-bed boat out and helped get the family out. Cameron said he had his mother’s truck in the shop working on it and was able to use it.
Even after the harrowing experience, the trials have not ended. Cameron said he has spent hours upon hours on the telephone with insurance agents, bank o◊cials and attempted tocontact the Red Cross. So far, he said he has received no satisfaction. They not only had home insurance, they had fl ood insurance, but Cameron learned that flood insurance doesn’t provide a place to live while ousted from the house and although homeowners does, it doesn’t when it involves water.
“We are in the highest rated area for fl ood insurance,” Tamara said. “We pay the highest amount and it does us absolutely no good.”
A large metal storage container was picked up and washed into the side ofCameron’s truck. “It should have slammed into Kayna’s bedroom. I don’t know why it didn’t,” Tamara said, expressing gratitude that it didn’t and astonishment at the force of the water. A pontoon boat was driven into the side of the house knocking loose a propane tank and left sitting on the air conditioner unit.
“Where ground used to be is all gone now,” Cameron said. “We’ve lost 15 to 30 feet of ground.”
Mr. McNabb is the bus superintendent at Pea Ridge schools; Mrs. McNabb is a teacher and assistant volleyball coach in Washburn, Mo.
News, Pages 1 on 08/14/2013