MILTON, WV (WOWK) – Everything changed when a Milton woman named Linda Jenkins got a call from her daughter on Tuesday around 11 p.m.
“She said ‘Mom, you need to come home. Your roof blew off your house.’ I thought she was joking. She was like ‘I would not joke about that,’” Jenkins said.
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When Jenkins arrived at her home, she found her roof lying in her front yard. Milton Firefighters responded to the call for help and were on the scene following the incident.
“Storms like this can cause minute damage to the home without showing any physical proof. I guess just overtime abuse from the storms …. allows a tragedy like this to happen,” Milton firefighter Isaac Bostic said.
Bostic said lately, his department has responded to multiple weather-related incidents, including damage to Jenkin’s home.
“It’s been pretty hectic. We’ve had a very good response from our station. All of our members really showed out and they stepped up really to fill those calls and fill that need,” Bostic said.
Jenkins told 13 News she paid for her entire home with cash upfront because she wanted a fresh start.
“I had a car wreck, and I had a few years of recovery from that. This was rebuilding my life, a re-start, and it was completely debt-free,” Jenkins said. “Now the burden of the financial, with the repairs, I don’t know what to do about that.”
“I feel like I have to stay here because I mean where else am I supposed to go? This is what I worked hard for, and it took us a year to get to this point overall. In the last three months, we got it done, and as soon as we got it done, the roof is gone,” Jenkins said.
Jenkins had just moved into her new home three months ago. After witnessing the damage that Tuesday’s storm caused, she said she immediately visioned all the memories she began to create in her new home.
“My grandkids did just get to come here and stay the first weekend a few weekends ago. They got to come here for Easter. So, we started new memories here, and then it’s like we’re on hold again,” Jenkins said. “That’s the hardest part is that they were able to come over and I had my own place, and now that’s going to be interrupted seeing my grandkids in my home. They had so much fun being here at my house, being at Ma’s again.”
Through this, Jenkins said she is searching for anyone who can help her. The American Red Cross surveyed the damage on Wednesday, and she said the Milton Volunteer Fire Department was there for her in a moment of need.
Bostic said, “It’s something that you feel if you do that, it’s right, and it kind of gives you a piece of mind that you helped somebody.”
Now, Jenkins must start over once again.
“I don’t know if there are people out there that will help me fix it or how to go about that. I’ve been a social worker for 25 years, and I’ve always helped people. I’ve helped my community, I’ve helped my county, my state, the whole state in various roles I’ve had in mental health, and I’ve never had to receive any kind of assistance. I’ve always been self-sufficient; my children are self-sufficient. So this is a very hard, sensitive thing where I can’t do this on my own,” Jenkins said.
“I’m just by myself and I’m older. I don’t have my parents. I’m not married. My children are living my own lives, and I’m here. It’s just kind of a vulnerable feeling, and it’s sad that we got it right where I wanted it, and we were just getting settled.”
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