Doreen McNeill

Fairmont, NC – Days after Hurricane Matthew had passed, water was still falling inside Doreen McNeill’s house. “During the storm, it poured in because shingles on the roof were torn off,” she says. “Then, because the ceilings got saturated, it continued to leak. I thought it would never stop.”

The storm also caused flooding under her house, which damaged the foundation and seeped through her floors. With stagnant water throughout her home, mold grew. “I’d use products from the hardware store to get rid of what I could see,” she says. “But my asthma kept getting worse. It was still growing inside the walls, ceilings and floors.”

McNeill paid to patch her roof, but the repairs did not last long. With no more money to fix her house, she applied to ReBuild NC. “I thought all I needed was help with my foundation and my roof,” she says. 

A ReBuild NC inspection revealed otherwise, identifying McNeill as a candidate for reconstruction. “I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “I was getting a whole new house! They even gave me the paperwork I needed to transfer my existing mortgage.”

ReBuild NC assigned a contractor to her project. “He said, ‘I know you loved your other house, so I’m going to build you one that you can be proud of,’” McNeill recalls. “And he did. I drive up to my yard and there’s a beautiful house sitting there. I just love everything about it.”

Today, McNeill wants people to know that ReBuild NC is making a difference in communities that need it. “As I drive through neighborhoods, I see a lot of ReBuild NC houses going up,” she says. “And I thank goodness for that.”