November 22, 2017 at 5:10 p.m.
Help is humbling
Families are grateful for community outreach after the Nov. 5 tornado destroyed their homes
Help is humbling
By Julie Valentine and Chris Schanz-
It has been 17 days since a tornado ripped through Jay County, destroying 11 homes and causing significant damage to many more.
Two of those decimated homes belonged to Carl and Laurie Muhlenkamp and Stacie and Allen Walter.
While their dwellings were lost, they experienced a community pulling together to help them in their time of need.
Stacie and Allen Walter, whose home once stood on county road 500 West just north of Indiana 26, always made storms an adventure for their kids.
They would turn the lights off in favor of candles, creating a journey with every storm that passed through.
On Nov. 5 the Walters were on their way to Muncie when the inclement weather started to threaten western Jay County. The family complained of missing all the action, thinking back to the fun “adventures” they would have when other storms hit the area.
Emilie Walter and her boyfriend, Brandon Dailey of Geneva, were at home while the rest of the family was away.
Their dog, Jeb, wanted to go outside, and when Emilie opened the back door she noticed dark skies. She asked her boyfriend if it was something that should concern them.
“He looked at it for a second and turned to me and said, ‘We need to leave,’” she recalled.
They took cover in a ditch as Brandon protected his girlfriend and watched as the Walter home was disintegrated.
Debris from the house and its contents was spread across fields for miles. Residents two miles away found family photos in their yard.
“It was hard when I first walked up to everything and just looked at the nothingness,” said Stacie. “It looked so empty, just not where we lived.”
Still, with most of their house strewn about adjacent fields, none of it mattered to the family.
All they cared about was that everyone was OK. Emilie and Brandon were safe and there was nothing else they could ask for.
“We have a hero in all of this,” said Allen. “Emilie wanted to stay in the house and Brandon made sure she got out. I am very grateful for what he did. He was very brave. He is my hero.”
“It was just a house,” said Stacie. “I may have lost everything but I still had everything … my family is where my home is.”
About 10 miles east and a few miles north, a similar situation unfolded for the Muhlenkamps’ house at 3707 N. 550 East.
While his parents and sisters were in Portland watching his younger brother Gavin play basketball, Austin sat on the couch in the basement with the family’s Yorkshire terrier as the tornado approached. He took shelter as best he could along the west wall as the house above him was lifted off its foundation.
“I was scared to death,” Laurie Muhlenkamp said the morning after.
A shed built about three years ago was shredded and strewn across the farm east of the home. Vehicles inside it were heavily damaged, and the garage itself was destroyed too.
•••••••••
The days following the disaster were the hardest for both families.
“It gets better every day,” said Carl Muhlenkamp, who also lost 75 percent of the farm he shares with his brother Dennis to the east of his home. “First couple days were a little overwhelming. Very little sleep.”
Although their house was mostly intact structurally, it was nearly completely off the foundation. The family spent the next few days filling boxes, plastic containers and trash bags with belongings to shove into two trailers.
Everything on the west side of the house — the living room, Carl and Laurie’s bedroom as well as the upstairs bedrooms of daughters Kendra and Briana — was destroyed. So was everything in the basement.
They’re still not sure what they can keep and what has to be trashed.
“We’re still getting to that point,” Laurie said. “We have to list everything for the insurance company.”
Carl said he has to go through and list piece by piece everything that was lost in the shed, down to each individual tool.
And that doesn’t include personal belongings or any keepsakes.
“The list goes on and on,” he said. “There are so many items, they don’t even know what we had. I don’t know how they take our word for it. Where do you draw the line?”
Laurie chimed in, “It’s 23 years of accumulation, how do you put a price on some of that stuff?”
On the western side of the county, the Walters worked through the rain and muck to dig through the remains of their home trying in an effort to find anything they could keep.
The load was lightened tremendously when neighbors and friends came to help.
On Monday, even more arrived.
“We didn’t even need to ask for anything. We didn’t even need to make any decisions,” Stacie said. “They were done. If we didn’t know what to do, someone else alongside us already did. It was a blessing.”
Little was salvaged from the Walters’ home. All that had been left standing was the back porch and a pile of firewood stacked up behind the foundation of the house.
••••••••••
Neither family had to search far for a place to spend their evenings.
The Muhlenkamps stayed with Laurie’s parents the first night, then moved to Clock Tower Inn in Berne to relieve some of the burden on the octogenarians.
“Those nights there we just kind of talked things over, what our next move was going to be,” Laurie said.
Kim and Tom Homan had an available house their son Travis had bought over the summer on Division Road but had not yet moved into. It’s where the Muhlenkamps have been staying since the hotel.
The Walters spent their first night at Holiday Inn Express in Portland, and then moved into a temporary home in Pennville owned by Nathan McClain.
Their focus the last couple of weeks has been settling in to where they will live for about a year.
“I think I might feel more overwhelmed now than I was then,” said Emilie. “I have never had time to just stay here and gather everything.”
Their new home will be built on the same foundation as the one the tornado obliterated, and construction is set to begin in the spring.
Currently, the Muhlenkamps are exploring options for their house.
Five days after the tornado shifted their home off of its base, a wrecking crew removed it completely from the foundation in order to save the basement walls. It was later torn down.
The house was manufactured by the now defunct All-American Homes in Decatur, and the family is in the process of working with R.E. Becker Builders in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
••••••••••
The support they received was the biggest shock to both families.
“You know when you go through something like this,” Allen said, “you pretty much think you are going to go through it by yourself.”
Helping hands came almost immediately.
Volunteers from all over the county, whether they knew the family or not, arrived at the Walter property and asked what they could do.
A host of Jay County High School athletes from the boys and girls basketball teams and the girls soccer team helped the Muhlenkamps immediately following the disaster.
“Overwhelming,” Carl said, noting he’s gotten teary-eyed thinking about the manpower, food and monetary donations they’ve received.
“We’re not used to asking for help,” Laurie added. “We’re not raised that way. We like to take care of things ourselves. It’s a humbling-type thing to say, ‘Just take it in and go with it.’”
“You don’t think people think that much of you as you go through life,” Stacie said. “But then something like this happens and everyone is showing up and doing what they need to do for you.”
The assistance hasn’t been limited just to what they need for their home.
Social media helped the Walters find Jeb.
The 5-year-old English Mastiff was missing after the storm went through. Emilie posted about the missing dog and had nearly 19,000 shares on Facebook. She got responses from across the country, and it was reported on national news.
Sarah Walter, a JCHS junior, said people who she had never spoken to at school came forward and asked how she was doing and offered their sympathy. Her teachers made sure she never felt too overwhelmed.
The Walters have had their bill picked up by diners at another table while eating at Buffalo Wings and Rings. And as the Muhlenkamps went to pay for their stay at the hotel in Berne, they were informed that someone had already handled it for them.
“I want to thank everyone for what they have done,” said Stacie. “Sometimes it’s hard … to feel deserving of it. I am just so so so grateful and so blessed and so humbled.”
“It should be one of the hardest moments of your life but it hasn’t been because of all the people that have stepped up for us.”
Laurie echoed Stacie’s statement.
“It’s just been a humbling experience,” she said. “Didn’t expect all this. Let’s just put it that way.
“It’s so great to live in a small community like we do and everybody knows everybody. It’s been nice.
“I wouldn’t trade living here for the world.”
Two of those decimated homes belonged to Carl and Laurie Muhlenkamp and Stacie and Allen Walter.
While their dwellings were lost, they experienced a community pulling together to help them in their time of need.
Stacie and Allen Walter, whose home once stood on county road 500 West just north of Indiana 26, always made storms an adventure for their kids.
They would turn the lights off in favor of candles, creating a journey with every storm that passed through.
On Nov. 5 the Walters were on their way to Muncie when the inclement weather started to threaten western Jay County. The family complained of missing all the action, thinking back to the fun “adventures” they would have when other storms hit the area.
Emilie Walter and her boyfriend, Brandon Dailey of Geneva, were at home while the rest of the family was away.
Their dog, Jeb, wanted to go outside, and when Emilie opened the back door she noticed dark skies. She asked her boyfriend if it was something that should concern them.
“He looked at it for a second and turned to me and said, ‘We need to leave,’” she recalled.
They took cover in a ditch as Brandon protected his girlfriend and watched as the Walter home was disintegrated.
Debris from the house and its contents was spread across fields for miles. Residents two miles away found family photos in their yard.
“It was hard when I first walked up to everything and just looked at the nothingness,” said Stacie. “It looked so empty, just not where we lived.”
Still, with most of their house strewn about adjacent fields, none of it mattered to the family.
All they cared about was that everyone was OK. Emilie and Brandon were safe and there was nothing else they could ask for.
“We have a hero in all of this,” said Allen. “Emilie wanted to stay in the house and Brandon made sure she got out. I am very grateful for what he did. He was very brave. He is my hero.”
“It was just a house,” said Stacie. “I may have lost everything but I still had everything … my family is where my home is.”
About 10 miles east and a few miles north, a similar situation unfolded for the Muhlenkamps’ house at 3707 N. 550 East.
While his parents and sisters were in Portland watching his younger brother Gavin play basketball, Austin sat on the couch in the basement with the family’s Yorkshire terrier as the tornado approached. He took shelter as best he could along the west wall as the house above him was lifted off its foundation.
“I was scared to death,” Laurie Muhlenkamp said the morning after.
A shed built about three years ago was shredded and strewn across the farm east of the home. Vehicles inside it were heavily damaged, and the garage itself was destroyed too.
•••••••••
The days following the disaster were the hardest for both families.
“It gets better every day,” said Carl Muhlenkamp, who also lost 75 percent of the farm he shares with his brother Dennis to the east of his home. “First couple days were a little overwhelming. Very little sleep.”
Although their house was mostly intact structurally, it was nearly completely off the foundation. The family spent the next few days filling boxes, plastic containers and trash bags with belongings to shove into two trailers.
Everything on the west side of the house — the living room, Carl and Laurie’s bedroom as well as the upstairs bedrooms of daughters Kendra and Briana — was destroyed. So was everything in the basement.
They’re still not sure what they can keep and what has to be trashed.
“We’re still getting to that point,” Laurie said. “We have to list everything for the insurance company.”
Carl said he has to go through and list piece by piece everything that was lost in the shed, down to each individual tool.
And that doesn’t include personal belongings or any keepsakes.
“The list goes on and on,” he said. “There are so many items, they don’t even know what we had. I don’t know how they take our word for it. Where do you draw the line?”
Laurie chimed in, “It’s 23 years of accumulation, how do you put a price on some of that stuff?”
On the western side of the county, the Walters worked through the rain and muck to dig through the remains of their home trying in an effort to find anything they could keep.
The load was lightened tremendously when neighbors and friends came to help.
On Monday, even more arrived.
“We didn’t even need to ask for anything. We didn’t even need to make any decisions,” Stacie said. “They were done. If we didn’t know what to do, someone else alongside us already did. It was a blessing.”
Little was salvaged from the Walters’ home. All that had been left standing was the back porch and a pile of firewood stacked up behind the foundation of the house.
••••••••••
Neither family had to search far for a place to spend their evenings.
The Muhlenkamps stayed with Laurie’s parents the first night, then moved to Clock Tower Inn in Berne to relieve some of the burden on the octogenarians.
“Those nights there we just kind of talked things over, what our next move was going to be,” Laurie said.
Kim and Tom Homan had an available house their son Travis had bought over the summer on Division Road but had not yet moved into. It’s where the Muhlenkamps have been staying since the hotel.
The Walters spent their first night at Holiday Inn Express in Portland, and then moved into a temporary home in Pennville owned by Nathan McClain.
Their focus the last couple of weeks has been settling in to where they will live for about a year.
“I think I might feel more overwhelmed now than I was then,” said Emilie. “I have never had time to just stay here and gather everything.”
Their new home will be built on the same foundation as the one the tornado obliterated, and construction is set to begin in the spring.
Currently, the Muhlenkamps are exploring options for their house.
Five days after the tornado shifted their home off of its base, a wrecking crew removed it completely from the foundation in order to save the basement walls. It was later torn down.
The house was manufactured by the now defunct All-American Homes in Decatur, and the family is in the process of working with R.E. Becker Builders in Wapakoneta, Ohio.
••••••••••
The support they received was the biggest shock to both families.
“You know when you go through something like this,” Allen said, “you pretty much think you are going to go through it by yourself.”
Helping hands came almost immediately.
Volunteers from all over the county, whether they knew the family or not, arrived at the Walter property and asked what they could do.
A host of Jay County High School athletes from the boys and girls basketball teams and the girls soccer team helped the Muhlenkamps immediately following the disaster.
“Overwhelming,” Carl said, noting he’s gotten teary-eyed thinking about the manpower, food and monetary donations they’ve received.
“We’re not used to asking for help,” Laurie added. “We’re not raised that way. We like to take care of things ourselves. It’s a humbling-type thing to say, ‘Just take it in and go with it.’”
“You don’t think people think that much of you as you go through life,” Stacie said. “But then something like this happens and everyone is showing up and doing what they need to do for you.”
The assistance hasn’t been limited just to what they need for their home.
Social media helped the Walters find Jeb.
The 5-year-old English Mastiff was missing after the storm went through. Emilie posted about the missing dog and had nearly 19,000 shares on Facebook. She got responses from across the country, and it was reported on national news.
Sarah Walter, a JCHS junior, said people who she had never spoken to at school came forward and asked how she was doing and offered their sympathy. Her teachers made sure she never felt too overwhelmed.
The Walters have had their bill picked up by diners at another table while eating at Buffalo Wings and Rings. And as the Muhlenkamps went to pay for their stay at the hotel in Berne, they were informed that someone had already handled it for them.
“I want to thank everyone for what they have done,” said Stacie. “Sometimes it’s hard … to feel deserving of it. I am just so so so grateful and so blessed and so humbled.”
“It should be one of the hardest moments of your life but it hasn’t been because of all the people that have stepped up for us.”
Laurie echoed Stacie’s statement.
“It’s just been a humbling experience,” she said. “Didn’t expect all this. Let’s just put it that way.
“It’s so great to live in a small community like we do and everybody knows everybody. It’s been nice.
“I wouldn’t trade living here for the world.”
Top Stories
9/11 NEVER FORGET Mobile Exhibit
Chartwells marketing
September 17, 2024 7:36 a.m.
Events
250 X 250 AD