From spring flood to winter freeze, homeowners along St. John River survive
Winter sets in for families still living in trailers outside their damaged homes
Since June, the three members of the Hope-Rapp family have been living in their front yard.
The family farmhouse along the St. John River took on two feet of water, or more than half a metre, during last spring's record flood.
When the water receded, the house about 30 kilometres east of Fredericton had to be gutted.
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Eric and Anna-Maria Hope-Rapp and their six-year-old daughter, Savannah, have been living in a camper since then, while their house undergoes repairs.
The family is also raising the house by a metre and a half in hopes of avoiding the next record flood.
Anna-Maria says it's been cozy in the mobile trailer the couple purchased. The trailer also serves as a one-room school house, since Savannah is home-schooled.
The couple thought of it as living in a "tiny house," but things took a turn when the cold arrived.
"We were doing OK until it started snowing, and we were worried about the snowplow coming through," Anna-Maria said.
The family trailer sits alongside the old Trans-Canada Highway. When the plow clears the road, it piles snow against their temporary home.
Plow drivers have been careful, but the couple worry about the icy roads.
"It's kind of scary because it's getting slippery out there and we're worried about people hitting us," Anna-Maria said.
"We thank the plows that come by that aren't wiping us out yet," said Eric, with icicles frozen in his moustache.
He spent part of his day Thursday replacing the hose that brings water from the house to the trailer.
It had frozen again Wednesday night as temperatures dipped past –20 Celsius.
Awaiting Aid
The Hope-Rapps never expected to be out of their home for so long, certainly not during winter weather. But a struggle with the New Brunswick Emergency Measures Organization over financial assistance left them with few options.
"They gave us a very, very low offer at first," said Anna-Maria. "So we had to fight a little bit to get a larger amount. Because raising the house is costing us just about everything we've got.
"They've been fairly good to us, and we're thankful that we're getting anything, but we did have to struggle a little bit with them."
Under the disaster financial assistance program, owners are eligible for up to $160,000 for basic structural repairs to their damaged homes.
Anna-Maria said the couple spent $70,000 to raise their house and put in a basement foundation.
The family had hoped to be back in by August. But the back-and-forth with EMO would push that hope to September, then to November. Now even Christmas seems unlikely.
"We don't talk about that yet," said Anna-Maria. "Even if we don't get in the house, we're going to put a tree up in the house."
Right now, they couple would settle for just getting into their driveway. The home is scheduled to settle onto its new foundation sometime next week. Once the heavy equipment needed for that job leaves, it will free up the space to move the trailer off the front lawn and away from the road.
"We're trying to be positive about it," Anna-Maria said. "We're trying to think of it as an adventure."
But the Hope-Rapps aren't the only ones surviving in makeshift homes.
"We've got quite a few people down the road that are still toughing it out in the trailer and stuff like that," Anna-Maria said.
All along Route 105, there are trailers and campers sitting outside gutted homes still being repaired after the flood.
Not alone
When the floodwaters receded in Maugerville, Paul Arthurs's house was unlivable, so he brought his hunting camper into the driveway. That's where he, his wife, their daughter and two-year-old granddaughter have been riding out the winter weather.
"I'm trying hard as I can to keep it warm as it can in the nighttime and hope that it gets warmer in the daytime, " said Arthurs.
He said it costs twice as much to heat the uninsulated trailer as it did to heat the damaged home.
"We have no water in the trailer because the hose going from the house to the trailer froze," Arthurs said. "And it busted some of the things in the trailer, so I spent the whole day fixing things in the trailer and at the end, I just gave up on the water.
"So we just go to a hotel once or twice a week just to take showers and get cleaned up."
At one point, the family was doing laundry in a washing machine set up outside the trailer because there was no room for the appliance. Then a surprise frost early froze the water in the pipes and destroyed the washing machine.
Not enough help
A boat mechanic by trade, Arthurs took three months off from his job to focus on rebuilding and lifting his home, mostly by himself.
"I lifted it about seven feet and put a basement under it," he said. "Floor joists, plumbing, electrical, everything."
Arthurs said EMO provided enough funding to either hire a contractor or pay for materials, but not both. So he's been waking up at 7 a.m. each day and working on the house alone until dark.
"They gave me money enough to buy the material and to get what I need to get the house back together," he said. "And I think that was in relatively good time, but I think that is because my wife is ill and [EMO] pushed it a little bit faster.
"But they didn't give me enough to be able to hire somebody to do it. If I hired somebody, I wouldn't have the money to buy the material."
He said if he didn't happen to have carpentry skills, the family would likely have to walk away from the home altogether.
"We would have had to just give up, I think."
Arthurs, like the Hope-Rapp family just down the road, is hoping to be living in an unfinished home at least by Christmas. But, also like his neighbours, he's not holding his breath.
CBC News requested an interview with EMO about the families' struggles.
Spokesperson Geoffrey Downey said in an email that the department would have an update on Friday but did not commit to an interview.
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