Flooding Leaves Pensacola Dam Neighbors 'Without A Place To Go'

At least a dozen families in Mayes County were still without homes Wednesday after heavy flooding from the Pensacola Dam forced them out.

The Grand River Dam Authority and Langley Police evacuated the neighborhood Monday night. Several neighbors returned to their homes and saw the damage first-hand for the first time Wednesday.

What does it feel like to lose everything all at once? The Millers, who had to evacuate their home by boat, can tell you.

"You have nothing," said Cheryl Miller, shrugging. "I mean, what I have is what I've got on. That's what I carried out of there in my purse."

Cheryl's husband Butch, a Baptist preacher, said he's used to being in the water, but not for this reason.

Wednesday, he put on the waders that he usually wears for baptisms, and walked through the chest-deep flood water to get inside his home.

After seeing the devastation, though, he regrets it.

"I wanted to see what was going on," Butch explained. "And I kind of wish I hadn't."

Butch snapped several photos of the inside of their home and said everything on the first floor is waterlogged, including everything in the garage.

Luckily, the water only reached four stairs high, and didn't touch anything on the second story of their home.

"We had a library in there," Butch said of their garage, "and everything is gone. It's just mud and water."

Cheryl's treasured grand piano, too, is filled with water. And photographs of their family are a total loss.

"We've been married 48 years and it's all back there," Cheryl said. "All the possessions you own are in the house, pictures, everything is gone."

The only solace, the Millers said, is that they're not alone.

"Everyone is without a place to go," Cheryl said, "and we just looked at each other like, 'Well, where are you going?' We don't plan ahead for stuff like that, you know?"

Most of the homeowners are staying with family or friends, or at a nearby church camp.

FEMA is expected to arrive Thursday to survey the damage.

The Millers' children have set up a GoFundMe account for them.