As flooded town works to rebuild, some wonder what’s next

Damage assessment teams with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Georgia Emergency Management Agency went door to door today to capture the scope of the flood damage in McCaysville.

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This will help determine if there will be a federal disaster declaration.

Channel 2’s Candace McCowan reports this could have a big impact.

So many do not know if they will rebuild. Some homes and businesses have been gutted down to the studs.

Others are barely cleaned out depending on the level of assistance they have.

“My sister’s got to leave in a day,” said Billy Paschal, who has been leaning on family.

He’s cleaning out the home where he lived when floodwaters came rushing through days ago.

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And he was there Wednesday as a damage assessment team including FEMA and GEMA went in to survey the damage.

“They’re looking at all of the damage that we identified locally here,” Tim Reeve with GEMA said. “Then a determination will be made if a presidential disaster declaration is requested at that point.”

As they evaluate, some are trying to determine what is next.

“I don’t even know when I’m going to get my doors open,” said Edward Vest, who owns the only grocery store, IGA. “This is just a guess, two to three million dollars to put this store back.”

Edward Vest owns the only grocery store, IGA, in McCaysville. He’s uncertain about if he will rebuild. But knows he has people depending on him.

“I probably had 22 to 24 employees, and you know, they’re going to be on unemployment, I guess, and I feel sorry for them,” he said. “And I hope we get to go back. It’s hard to say at this point. I’m getting older and don’t know that I’m the one that should be doing it.”

There are so many stories of people coming from all around the region to help.

They’re helping clean out businesses and help residents.

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