Streets near the Ohio River in Utica were caked with dirt Monday afternoon. Big piles of drywall, flooring and furniture ruined by flood waters sat near property lines. It’s the start of what many residents say will be a long cleanup.
Town officials issued an emergency declaration ahead of the flooding, and closed the town to visitors without business there for around a week. Residents moved their belongings to higher ground and found other places to stay as the waters rose.
It wasn't until this past weekend they could start getting work done.
Kent Hall lives on Second Street in Utica. He was born and raised in the town and lived there most of his life.
He didn’t expect the nearly foot of water that came into his home, and some things weren't put up high enough.
On Monday, he was rinsing mud off knick-knacks in a bucket of water.
“Just get out as much as you can…the important stuff,” Hall said of preparing for the flood. “And you know, sometimes you have to leave some stuff behind, and it's just like starting over when you come back.”
He said he knows some have it worse — a friend got around four feet. He’s also glad the stronger flooring he put in after a past flood held up in this one.
He said he hopes to be back in his home in about a week. The big job in his way is replacing his electrical outlets and getting those inspected. It will be a long time before things are back to normal.
“Oh, years after a flood,” he said. “[In] ‘97 things weren't back to normal after 10 years. “There's just so much that gets damaged. It just takes time.”
Nearby, Mike Morrow has been cleaning up and removing damaged materials. Although some residents kayaked to check on their properties before the river’s crest last week, Morrow waited until the waters went down.
“I just didn't want to think about it,” he said Monday. “I [could] imagine what it was going to look like, but I didn’t want to realize what it was going to look like.”
Morrow got about a foot-and-a-half of water — more than 2018, less than 1997. He’s cut out two feet of drywall. His kitchen cabinets, which he thought would be okay, are warped.
There’s water stuck between the panes on his sliding glass door.
“The inside’s not bad but the outside…there was less mud in 2018 than there is now,” he said.
He’s optimistic about the cleanup, which he expects will take him a few months. And though he’ll probably have electricity soon, he doesn't want to rush moving into the home before it’s cleaned. He said he got sick from doing that too early in 2018.
Martha Whetsell is with Utica Preservation Association, Inc., a group whose work includes feeding people this week. The Salvation Army and American Red Cross have also been in town helping. Whetsell, too, grew up in Utica and was excited to get back after her husband retired.
“It's a little piece of heaven here on Earth,” she said.
Over the weekend, when the water had just receded, Whetsell helped direct people asking how to help.
“I've sent them [and] said, ‘Well, you know, so and so is just starting on their house…if you can go there,’” she said. “And they did. They went right in the muck and the mud and helped people.”
A representative with the Indiana Department of Homeland Security will be in Clark County Wednesday, assessing weather damage.
Clark County Emergency Management Director Gavan Hebner said local officials identified more than 270 structures over the weekend with damage according to the Indiana Department of Homeland Security criteria. Almost all of this was flooding damage, although some had been hit by recent storms.
He said Utica has been the hardest hit as far as the number of structures. He said communities near the river in Charlestown, Blackiston Mill Road in Clarksville and Bethlehem also have homes with major damage.
Hebner said the state assessments Wednesday will help determine next steps and whether the county meets the state thresholds to receive assistance.
He said it will also help determine whether there’s enough damage to request a federal declaration. The Clark County Commissioners also declared a disaster emergency earlier this month.
Last week, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun declared a state of disaster emergency for 18 counties, including Clark. That declaration helps open up state funding.
Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
