3 months later, some Fayetteville neighbors find Matthew recovery painfully slow
FAYETTEVILLE, North Carolina (WTVD) -- Wednesday marks three months since Hurricane Matthew slammed North Carolina with torrential rains, and some of the worst flooding ever.
Parts of Fayetteville were some of the hardest hit. For some, the recovery is slow, while others are still waiting for it to begin.
Along Sessoms Street, some residents say they are starting 2017, exactly the way last year ended, and with little hope things will get better anytime soon.
More than 90 homes in this neighborhood were damaged by Matthew's floodwaters that at times topped street-side mail boxes.
The water is long gone, replaced some residents say, by a flood of frustration.
Lorie Davis called the past three months some of the worst times of her life.
"I actually wound up in the hospital; they thought I was having a heart attack from all the stress," Davis said. "And it was stress but it's from not knowing when we are coming back."
For many in this Habitat for Humanity neighborhood, the cleanup and recovery has been painfully slow.
Some progress has been made: Most of the piles of debris that once clogged streets and yards are gone, and contractors hope that some of the residents displaced by the flood can move back into their repaired homes by next week.
But others are still waiting for home repairs to begin.
"I guess we are seeing other houses in the neighborhood getting worked on, getting finished, getting ready to move back in, and it seems like there is no progress at your house," said Joanna Quick, the daughter of a flood victim.
Quick showed an ABC11 crew around her mother's home. She said family members pitched in to remove soggy insulation and wallboard, ripped up the carpet and removed cabinets. That was in October.
"At the beginning they said six months to a year," Quick said, "but asking them yesterday, they did not give us an exact time. The contractor just said as soon as he can work us in, as soon as possible."
And for many, the start of 2017 won't bring the kinds of answers they had hoped for.
"It's either everybody is too busy, or it seems like nobody wants to come out and just give us an answer," Davis said. "You know that's all we are asking for is answers."
