Donna Carey doesn't live here anymore.
For 30 years, Carey and her husband, Jim, lived in their dream home on Hidden Valley Road in Plunketts Creek Township.
The couple were married in the stone house overlooking Loyalsock Creek and, over the years, hosted family gatherings and parties there.
Article Photos
DAVID THOMPSON/Sun-Gazette
After last year’s flood, Donna Carey decided not to return to the home along Loyalsock Creek she had shared with her late husband, Jim.
It was a place of family, friends, laughter and countless memories.
"We had some wonderful parties," Carey said. "We had canoes, kayaks - a big volleyball court. Down along the water, we played horseshoes. We'd have a party and it wasn't anything to have 100 people. It was a good time for a lot of people."
Those good times are over.
Last September in the wake of Tropical Storm Lee, the creek overflowed and wrecked the home and an adjacent cottage on the property.
To make matters worse, Carey was left to face the devastation without her husband. Jim had died a year earlier from non-alcoholic liver disease.
"I was still grieving the loss of Jim when I began grieving the loss of our home," Carey said.
On the fateful day of the flood, she and her grandson, Michael Dincher, who lived in the cottage, had been keeping a watchful eye on the creek.
"Michael and I were up all night long, watching the water," Carey said. "When it started to go up, it started to go up really fast."
Carey said the property flooded during the 1996 flood, taking on about 4 feet of water. With that in mind, she and her grandson took steps to get the most valuable items - collectibles and family mementos - high above that benchmark.
"We started to put things up because we thought it would be like 1996," Carey said. "We put things on high shelves. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect the water to reach the ceiling."
It did reach the ceiling, however, and ripped away an addition the Careys built to accommodate a master bedroom, hot tub and bathroom. An enclosed porch facing the creek was washed away and a section of roof was torn off the house.
The entire first floor of the house, along with many irreplaceable family keepsakes, was ruined, Carey said.
"I lost all of my appliances and everything on the first floor. I lost a lot of sterling silver, Waterford crystal, David Armstrong paintings," Carey said. "The reason I miss them is because they were gifts for me and my husband from our children."
It was Carey's children, grandchildren and friends who proved to be her salvation through those dark days following the flood. They were the ones who helped with the cleanup - and there was plenty of work to do.
"We had three burn piles going for three days," Carey said. "We had a sinkhole in the driveway that you could put a pickup truck in.
"My family is extraordinary and my friends are extraordinary," Carey said. "I had people from my high school class who I hadn't seen in 50 years who sent notes and checks."
Carey said members of St. Boniface Church, where she is a member, offered all kinds of support.
"People I didn't even know from the church gave money, gift cards, words of encouragement and offers to help," Carey said. "I needed everything."
Carey decided she would not return to the home. The property has been approved for a buyout through a program designed to buy and demolish frequently flooded homes.
She found a house on Round Hill Road in Old Lycoming Township.
"It has a little stream out back. I have woods and flowers and trees," she said. "The minute I stepped inside I knew it was my home."
Most appealing to Carey were aspects of the home that reminded her of her husband - the stone countertop, the lighting.
"It wasn't the same, but there were so many things," she said. One of those things she brought with her.
It was a lilac bush planted by her husband under the window of the master bedroom. The bush survived the flood.
Carey said Dincher and his brother, Stephen, placed a rock sign next to the bush, imploring workers at the site not to destroy it.
"Michael and Stephen wrote on the rock, 'Please don't hurt the bush,' " Carey said. "They knew how much I wanted to have it with me. The boys just dug it up and brought it to my house."
Carey said she is starting a new chapter to her life.
"Would I rather I do it with my husband? Of course. I miss him horribly," she said. "That being said, if I have to live within four walls, I'm happy with the four walls I have."
