176 residents asking what lies ahead

TRYON — Driveways are still impassable.

Piles of mud and debris sit on the side of the road. Yards are covered in water and mud.

At least three houses are uninhabitable and parts of Highway 176 look like a ghost town.

Two weeks after the devastating mudslides on Warrior Mountain and Highway 176, residents are beginning to dig out and others are just now considering returning home. NC Baptist Men volunteers are bringing in equipment to see what they can do to help clear away mud and debris.

The Department of Transportation still has a backhoe working, and a few dump trucks are still carrying away the piles and piles of mud stacked by the highway.

U.S. 176 is still closed as of Friday afternoon. Though the water and mud has mostly been cleared away from the road itself, signs still flash “standing water in road,” and there is still a huge amount of work still ahead.

Residents are reporting that insurance will not cover the damage, even if they had flood insurance, as most policies have clauses saying they will not cover mudslides. Others are saying they have no idea how to clean up the mud from their yards and basements.

“We go to Midway Baptist Church. They got a team together and scooped out and hauled away all the mud from our basement,” said Bob Giordano, who just moved to Tryon with his wife, Pamela, in December. “With the additional rain, we have water and mud in there again.”

“We moved up here from the Charleston area to get away from the floods,” Pamela said.

Bob said the have filed with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and are waiting to hear something.

“Why is it taking so long to declare the area a disaster?” he asked.

Pamela was putting away the boxes of baby pictures she took with her when they evacuated last weekend.

“Something like this changes your whole outlook on what’s important,” she said. “Now we’re just sitting here, waiting to find out what happens next.”