Several homes still soggy from flooding
Some Peruque families use boats to reach homes
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| Ryan Prewitt photo -- Linda Swiney leaves her home by boat. The only road to her home was still covered by floodwaters Friday, and so she and her family have been relying on the boat to get to their vehicles. |
To get home, she had to take a boat.
The metal boat heated up in the sun as she steered through the syrupy, still waters.Asiatic carp hurtled out of the muddy river unexpectedly, almost leaping into the boat.
She passed the submerged trees that used to dot the shore. Dark stains on their trunks marked the receding river.
Some of the leaves at the top were still bright green; other tree tops had begun to yellow and wither.
The smell of rotten fish hung in the moist, heavy air.
"This isn't as bad as it will get," she said.
When the waters retreat, fish caught in pockets of evaporating water will die, she explained.
Swiney and her husband, Charles Swiney, have been through four floods.
"I've been through every one of the big ones -- 1973, 1993 and 1995," Charles Swiney said.
The Swiney house is perched up on stilts like a tree house, with a wooden deck that wraps all around, like the crow's nest of a ship.
Green tomato plants, rescued from the flooded garden, line the deck, growing temporarily in Folgers coffee cans.
The house was designed to withstand floodwaters, which stained everything they touched the color of tobacco juice.
The first floor of the house was really a two-tiered garage and workshop for Charles Swiney; it was made of steel girders.
The couple and their son, Keith Swiney, said they were prepared when the Mississippi rose last month.
They capped their wells to avoid contamination and began using rain barrels to water the plants.
They even installed a composting toilet to use when the plumbing wasn't working, Linda said.
The house was cool and comfortable inside. The Swineys' three little dogs, Sniffles, Gracie and Gypsy Rose, played and cuddled in the wood-paneled room.
Charles Swiney said he never considered leaving his home.
"For one thing, a lot of times if you leave your places, then people will like to break in to them," he said. "I will not stand by and watch people rip me off."
The family stopped buying flood insurance after the flood of 1993, when they were told coverage would cost $1,200 a year.
Charles Swiney is retired. Keith Swiney, who also lives at the home, works for Pooltron in St. Louis. Linda Swiney works for MEMC Electronic Materials Inc., making computer chips.
Keith Swiney said he has to take a boat across the river to reach his car, then drive more than 20 miles to get to work every day.
The Swineys said they love growing their own food, hunting, and having the room to work on their own projects, despite the drawbacks of flooding.
"It's like a little garden of Eden at times, but now it's starting to change a lot," Charles Swiney said.
The family would consider taking a government buyout if they were offered one, he said.
Across the swollen river, on Dardenne Drive, live Chris and Kristi Still with their two boys, ages 13 and 4.
The Stills never weathered a flood before last month. They did have flood insurance, though they thought they'd never need to use it.
They paid $171,000 for their house eight years ago.
The house is two stories. Much of it was stained brown by river water.
As the Mississippi drained, it seemed to take with it every other color.
"I'm sorry, this is a waterside resort, and we don't accept walk-ins," Zach, 13, joked as a reporter pulled up.
The large pen where the Stills keep their Akita puppy and their German Shepherd were empty; the dogs were staying with the family at a relative's house.
Inside, the house smelled of bleach and lake water.
Before the floods hit, the home had brightly painted walls and new floors.
Last week, the tile floors were peeling up, leaving a surface stickier than fly paper. The floor sucked off people's shoes with each step.
A virtual ark of frogs, snakes and other river critters have been displaced by churning waters, and some seemed to be relocating in the Stills' home. The family described with wonder how schools of fish were leaping through their basement.
The family has torn out some drywall to stop mold from taking over the home.
They put in new carpet in the living room not long before the recent flooding.
"I think that's what jinxed us," Chris Still joked.
Chris Still owns a lawn care business. Kristi Still works for Boeing.
They cannot afford to move, but said they wish they could.
Kristi Still said she's grateful her boys aren't in school right now, because shuttling them back and forth would be an added hassle.
Zach was glad, too.
"I kind of want to be here to help out as much as I can," Zach said.
The Stills said they were gathering a lot of information from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the county and their insurance company. Some of the information is confusing or contradictory, they said.
"We're trying to find the answers so we can make a plan," Chris Still said.
