Joe Darren Stotler had no warning that his living situation was about to drastically change over the weekend. “I’m really good about watching the weather,” he said.
At midnight Saturday, he walked down to check the level of the creek that runs alongside his property at the end of South Kentucky Street. “There wasn’t anything in the creek, at least not on my side,” he noted. That soon would change.
Stotler has lived in a camper on the plot of land for around eight years. Living close to a creek, he is vigilant about noting the water level and being prepared for disastrous weather. “I’ve had to pull my trailer out twice before, just out of precaution,” he said.
He parked his vehicle farther into the property Saturday evening, just in case it rained enough to cause the creek to rise. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, though, so he went to bed.
Waking up at 4 a.m. to go to the bathroom, Stotler noticed something wasn’t right. “It looked weird outside and I didn’t see my mower trailer sitting in the driveway anymore,” he said. “I stepped out of the trailer to turn on the light and stepped into the water.”
Rushing back into the camper, Stotler quickly dressed in hopes of getting to his vehicle to get out of the flood. “When I waded around the end of the camper, the current was so strong that it almost washed me away,” he said. “I barely got back around to the front to get inside.” He did the only thing he could do — he called 911.
“An hour later, by the time they got everyone around to come and get me, the water was up to there,” Stotler said, pointing at a water line on his camper that reached shoulder level. Rescue crews were able to help both Stotler and his 7-year-old dog, Bonnie. “It crept up on us so fast,” he said.
When he was able to return home, there was still quite a bit of water in the road. “I was coming down the driveway and there were literally fish swimming,” he said. Stotler set out to assess the damage that was left behind from the flood.
With the exception of his life, the flood took nearly everything else. The car he so desperately tried to reach is now totaled. “Just to get in it, I’d have to have a firehose to get all of the mud out of it,” he said. The floodwaters submerged the car nearly to the ceiling, getting water underneath the dash and into the wiring.
Many of Stotler’s belongings were also taken away by the current. His 12-foot mower trailer he couldn’t find? Swept away into the weeds and wooded area on the edge of his property. “I’ve been trying to clean up, but I don’t even have any trash cans anymore,” he said. “They floated away somewhere.”
He added that he couldn’t get his camper door shut when he was rescued, so he had furniture floating all over the place when he returned.
Being on disability, Stotler noted he doesn’t have much of an income. “This flood has really devastated me,” he said. Even his mower that he uses to supplement his income is now totaled. His kids plan on visiting this weekend to help him remove the furniture from his camper. Afterwards, they will start tearing up the floor to see what the extent of the damage is.
The camper has been Stotler’s home since 2009 and now it looks as though that time has come to an end. “I don’t hold out a lot of hope for it,” he said.
