It's been more than three years, but Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster Recovery workers are laying the foundation blocks to replace a flood-destroyed home in the Clendenin area.
"I've been living in a camper and it's kind of been rough," Teresa Chandler of Clendenin said. "You can't have family in. I'm just excited about getting a house. Now I see hope more than I did before."
After untangling the RISE West Virginia mess, VOAD West Virginia and the state's National Guard are both pushing toward the construction phase for the 403 active RISE WV cases.
"We are finally there," Major Holli Nelson with the West Virginia National Guard said. "I feel like we've been talking for months now about how we wanted a big push over the summer to get more homes in construction and what a better time than now. I mean, VOAD's working on completing this first full reconstruction here in Clendenin and it's an exciting time."
This site is among five home construction projects VOAD is kicking off. The organization's site managers will oversee professional, paid construction workers when needed, such as those building this more than nine foot tall home foundation to keep the residence out of the flood plain. Those supervisors will also coordinate the volunteer crews who will come in after the foundations are in place to actually construct the living space.
"We have five projects up and running," Jenny Gannaway with West Virginia VOAD said. "Two here in Kanawha County, one is getting ready to start over in Nicholas County and two over in Greenbrier County. So, our goal is to have five projects at all times running and things moving forward."
It's hoped that after more than 1,100 days of waiting for help and living in a camper, Teresa Chandler's house will be finished by Thanksgiving.
"It's hard to believe, you know. It was hard to believe anybody," Chandler said.
Eyewitness News asked if the organization was different now from the first two years when the National Guard took over.
"Oh yes, it was very different," she said. "But like I said, it was hard to believe anybody after the first two years."
But after seeing the blocks go up on her new home, Chandler said she now feels differently.
"I'm a believer," she said while laughing.
So far, RISE West Virginia has finished work on 55 homes. Another 42 are under construction. The plan is to have all but a handful of the 403 active cases moved into some form of the construction phase over the next several weeks.