THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

Sybol Close has a face creased with worry lines and the voice of a woman used to conversing with the heavens during tough times.

So as ice, snow and frozen branches pummeled her family's home in Greenville, in Western Kentucky, she knew that she, her eight grandchildren and other loved ones would be safe.

Now that the storm has passed, the Close family, like so many financially strapped Kentucky residents whose lives were upended by the massive ice storm, finds itself in a tangle of bureaucratic red tape.

Utility companies can't restore power until families like hers make costly repairs to upgrade their homes' electrical systems.

"This house only has an 80 amp fuse box. It was built back in the 1940s so its not up to code,: said Close, who has spent almost two weeks with her family at a Red Cross Shelter at the First Baptist Church in Greenville. "The meter that's out there is the old meter so until a new meter gets put in and a breaker box instead of a fuse box they won't hook power up to it."

"That costs money, that's $5,000, and that's not money we have."

In the meantime, people like Close are starting to wonder how to begin life anew.

That will not be an easy feat for Close, the matriarch of a 13-member clan.

Before the storm, she and her daughters were just getting by. Close, who worked for years at Walmart, stayed home to mind the youngest children as her daughters headed off to jobs at Lowe's and Applebee's.

The children kept their book bags out on the porch so as to not take up too much room in the small home on Trowbridge Street, just four blocks from the shelter. The book bags are still there, as are the children's school clothes — things they’ll need when they return to class at Greenville Elementary School on Monday.

Heavy rains brought on leaks in the back rooms. The family often huddled around electric heaters and kerosene heaters to keep warm.

From her position on the running track of the fellowship center at First Baptist Church in Greenville, Close looked down toward the Red Cross shelter, which has emptied out as many who sought shelter got back on their feet.

Her eyes were bloodshot and full of tears as she pondered where her family will eventually land. Their home, she's decided, is uninhabitable. Volunteers are helping the family look for a new place to live, Close said.

She headed back to the shelter, and the children clung to her spouting tales of the day as fast as they could. The children recently contracted a food-related virus, and have been quarantined from the rest of the families at the shelter.

But the virus is just a minor chapter in the family's saga.

"The toughest part was standing outside watching all this happen," Close said. "It's like standing there and watching your world disappear. That was the toughest part. If all of our stuff stays there it's God’s will. If it gets stolen that's God’s will, too. But we start over as a family.”

// posted by montag @ 5:44 PM