Flood victims still struggling

David Kihara

Friday, Feb. 4, 2005 | 11:08 a.m.

When Ron Marquardt walked into his home in Mesquite after the January floods three weeks ago, he was devastated.

The couches and chairs in his living room were swimming in a foot of mud. The bed he and his wife shared every night was submerged in filthy water. His widescreen television was face-down in the mud.

"Everything we had was destroyed," Marquardt said on Thursday. "There was no place the water and mud didn't get into."

More than three weeks have passed since the historic flooding swept through Mesquite, damaging more than 80 homes and causing an estimated $5 to $10 million in damage to residences.

Yet for residents like Marquardt, the rebuilding effort is just beginning.

On Thursday Marquardt stood in the remains of his house, as he has almost every day since the floods. He was doing what needed to be done, such as stripping the walls of sheetrock, or disposing of the pink insulation that after being soaked with the floodwaters had turned brown.

Marquardt, 59, estimates that between $75,000 and $100,000 worth of damage had been done to his home during the flooding.

It's a sum that is almost incomprehensible to someone like Marquardt, who didn't have flood insurance, is retired from his job as a truck driver and is living on a fixed income.

"I may have to go back to work. I could work as a carpenter and maybe my wife could get a job as an accountant," said Marquardt, who added, "I'm sure there's something."

Marquardt and his wife came to Mesquite 11 months ago from Maple Plain, Minn. They had bought the lot of land on Cottonwood Drive about a quarter mile from the Virgin River because "we fell in love with the lot and wanted to build a home here," he said.

His wife, Vonnie, had designed the floor plan for the house, and they paid $175,000 to have it built. They moved in on March 1, 2004.

"We moved in one year too early," he joked.

Now Marquardt and his wife are living in a motorhome their son had brought them from Minnesota. They parked the motorhome at a local RV park, which allows Marquardt to commute to the remains of their house every day.

Power of nature

The flooding in the second week of January was some of the most powerful in the last century, according to the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The flow of the Virgin River was estimated at about 28,000 cubic feet per second on Jan. 10, the day the flooding began, according to FEMA. However, the strength of the floods was so great that gauges and measuring equipment from the U.S. Geological Survey were "damaged or destroyed," FEMA reported.

FEMA estimates that water flow may have increased to more than 30,000 cubic feet per second when the Virgin River rose and may have surpassed the second-highest peak flow of 35,000 cubic feet, set in 1966.

The record peak of 61,000 cubic feet per second was reached after the Quail Creek dam failed in 1989.

The state has already declared Mequite and other areas disaster areas, and Gov. Kenny Guinn on Tuesday asked for a presidential disaster declaration for Clark and Lincoln counties. Guinn's request was still pending there -- along with six other Nevada counties -- early this morning, Barbara Ellis, a spokeswoman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said.

The presidential disaster declaration would pave the way for those counties to receive federal disaster assistance. Meanwhile two Utah counties, Kane and Washington, have already received the designation while another request by six Arizona counties and two American Indian nations was pending, Ellis said.

The FEMA spokeswoman said she did not know when the agency will provide an answer to homeowners in Nevada.

Guinn previously stated that 52 ranches and farms were damaged in Clark County and damage for the county will reach more than $5 million. The damage to Lincoln county agricultural areas will be more than $2 million.

"I definitely think this is a disaster site," said Mesquite City Manager Bryan Montgomery on Thursday.

He said the area desperately needs the FEMA designation to be expedited so Mesquite residents can get federal money.

"It should have already happened," he said. "At some point they have to make a declaration."

The seasonal floods affected other regions equally hard, and in some cases the damage was worse.

In Arizona, seven out of the state's 15 counties had declared states of emergency on Jan. 11 because of massive flooding in the state, according to early reports by FEMA. Three days after the flooding in Arizona began, FEMA and news sources estimated the damage in that state to be $3 million.

Lawmakers in Utah, meanwhile, put together an aid package for flood areas that exceeded $25 million, according to the Deseret Morning News. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman on Jan. 19 asked for a presidential disaster declaration, according to FEMA.

Work begins

Some Mesquite residents such as Marquardt, meanwhile, are counting every penny they have.

He recalled that immediately after the floods, he and his wife spent $125 in quarters at a local laundromat to wash between 50 or 60 loads of clothes that had been soiled by the floods.

Deloy Butterfield, Marquardt's 66-year-old neighbor, is also in a bind. Like Marquardt, Butterfield's home was gutted by the January floods, and he estimates the damage to his house will cost about $60,000 to repair.

Butterfield, who is also retired and living on a fixed income, doesn't have the money now to begin repairs on his home.

"I have a little saved up, now I have to pay for this?" Butterfield asked on Thursday.

He had pulled up the flooring of his house and lifted some of the floorboards in what was once his living room. The openings exposed the crawlspace under his house that is still filled with at least eight inches of wet mud that looked like brown split-pea soup.

"We have no money to fix this house," said Butterfield, who is also living in a motorhome in a local RV park.

About 30 miles away, residents in Overton were also attempting to repair the damage done to their homes by the flooding.

Bud Webber, who owns a house near the Muddy River, estimates that the floods caused at least $350,000 damage to his two-story home. His backyard is currently stacked with ruined mattresses, at least seven couches, several major appliances such as a stove and refrigerator as well as a brand new treadmill that had been wrecked in the flood.

Two of his vehicles, a 1994 Chrysler and a 1998 Ford F-10 pickup truck, were destroyed by water damage when he and his family fled their home on Jan. 11.

"It makes me sick -- the house was never looking better before the floods," he said. "This hit me at a real bad time."

He said that his family is currently renting a house in Overton while he waits for repairs to be done. Luckily, he has flood insurance but has not yet received any insurance money.

"I'm just sitting here spending money, and the money's going really fast," he said.

The one bright spot is that he received an enormous amount of help from people in the community. He said that after the flooding, at least 70 people came out and helped him clear out rubbish and clean the inside of his home. One person even loaned him a spare SUV so he could commute from his home to his rental.

"We're not getting any help except from people in the community. You find out you got friends in a disaster. That's what a flood does," he said.

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