Allan Moulton spent Friday picking up what’s left of his house, with help from volunteers.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done without them,” he said. “Honestly I think I would’ve gave up.”
Item by item, volunteers from a Christian Disaster Relief group hauled furniture and boxes out of his home, and threw them into a dumpster or into a small pile of what’s salvageable.
Flash flooding in Brooklyn, N.S. not only sent knee-deep water into Moulton’s trailer home but it also lifted the trailer home off the ground. His house was floating and had spun around 180 degrees.
Moulton only realized something was wrong when his daughter who lives nearby called him in a panic to wake him up.
“When I got to answer the phone I was up to (my) knees in water in the house,” he said. “It was floating. I didn’t realize it.”
Moulton called 911 and said crews arrived, but couldn’t reach him by boat for about four hours.
He describes holding a small dog above his arms and said his cat climbed up on top of the kitchen cupboards. His wife was getting worried.
“We just kind of floated around there and then it sunk to the bottom of the yard. The water rose another three feet in about two minutes,” he said. At that point, the water was up to his chest and even higher for his wife who’s shorter.
Moulton said emergency crews were up on the road hollering back and forth to keep him and his wife calm.
“I was eyeing the roof cause I was heading there next,” he said.
He estimates about three or four hours later firefighters rescued the couple with a zodiac boat.
The Brooklyn resident doesn’t have flood insurance and said his home is a write-off. His sister created a GoFundme page to help.
Despite his own troubles, he feels worse for his daughter who lives behind him and also lost their house.
Moulton said while he knew he didn’t have flood insurance, his daughter believed she did.
Moulton also expressed concern for how cell service is spotty in the Brooklyn area, and how late the emergency alert came in, which he says could have saved valuable time.
“We were already waiting for the boat to get us out of the house before my phone even beeped,” he said.
