Sandra Settle

Whiteville, NC — Christmas 2019 is one holiday Sandra Settle will always remember. For the first time since October of that year, she and her family slept in their own house. “Waking up Christmas morning at home was phenomenal,” she says.

The road to a happy holiday had been long for Settle. In 2016, flooding beneath the house from Hurricane Matthew destroyed the flooring and furniture on her first floor. Soon after, indoor pipes burst due to storm impacts, flooding the second floor. Settle made the necessary repairs. Then Hurricane Florence arrived, and her home flooded again. “All the repairs were destroyed,” she says. “There was no way we could afford to fix the house.”

Settle applied to ReBuild NC for assistance and was approved in June 2019. “All of a sudden, they were ready to start work,” she says. ReBuild NC covered lodging costs for Settle’s family during the rehabilitation and assigned a contractor to repair the damages. “The rushing waters had sunken the piers supporting the middle of the house, which made the first floor sink. They had to raise the foundation and then replace the flooring,” she says. “They also replaced the flooring upstairs. Both HVAC systems were replaced. They painted everything and brought the water heater up to code.” 

Settle now has an updated kitchen, which she says is “like an HGTV kitchen.” She has a sturdy, leveld floor that no longer sinks as she walks. She also still has precious mementos. “When the contractors replaced some trim around my front door, they kept the part they removed because it had the measurements of my children as they were growing up,” Settle says. “I didn’t ask them to do that, so it really touched my heart.”