Little Rock couple facing thousands in repairs after April floods

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — One Arkansas couple is still dealing with the effects of the rain and flooding that the Natural State saw in early April.

Fourche Creek, which is generally about 3 feet deep, crested at around 21 feet early on April 5, which heavily impacted Gary and Amybeth Driscoll’s home in Little Rock.

“You couldn’t even see the top of the back fence,” described Gary Driscoll. “The water was so high.”

The Driscolls said that what happened on that day was totally unexpected. They’d had water get up to their back fence before, but it had never gone past it, or totally over it.

“We didn’t ever expect it to come inside,” Amybeth Driscoll said.

Even with sandbags set up in their backyard surrounding their property, water began to flood their basement at around 8:00 a.m.

“We had probably an hour and a half, maybe two hours, to just grab pictures, boxes of mementos, keepsakes, any small appliances, books. Whatever we could grab and bring them upstairs in a frantic flurry,” explained Gary Driscoll.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t save everything. The basement itself, as well as several large items, were heavily impacted. 

The carpet, drywall, washer and dryer, furniture, and several other things will all need to be replaced.

“The heater’s got to be replaced,” Gary Driscoll said. “And the hot water heater also has to be replaced. So currently we have no heat, no AC, and no hot water.”

Making matters worse is the fact that many of these costs will be coming out of their own pocket.

Their homeowner’s insurance doesn’t apply to floods, and their flood insurance will only cover the damage to the home— not any property items that they lost.

However, they wish they’d known this ahead of time and encourage people to read their policies closely.

“I recommend anybody that’s in a flood area that has flood insurance check their policy to make sure contents are included on their flood policy,” Gary Driscoll said. “Because we did not have that special clause in there. So, our insurance is only covering structural stuff to the house.”

They have gotten support from friends and neighbors and have been able to start a GoFundMe.

And now, the Driscolls want to make sure others don’t go through their same situation.

“Water is very powerful,” Amybeth Driscoll said. “And if you haven’t been in it or seen it just tear through a neighborhood, you don’t know. People need to really respect that flooding is a very dangerous thing.”

The link to the Driscoll’s GoFundMe, which also includes more information on the exact costs they may be facing, can be found here.