CLARK COUNTY, Ind. (WAVE) - Ralph Swank’s home along the water was once a place he could sit back and relax. Six months after severe flooding on the Ohio River, it’s now a pile of rubble.
“We videotaped it,” Swank said, talking about the day the house was demolished. “It was nerve-wracking. Very, very nerve-wracking.”
In the months after the flooding, WAVE got a look inside the home: broken windows, filled with mud, and a faint water line seven feet and some change high.
Ultimately, a Clark County official told Swank to stop repairs. His house was condemned and needed to be rebuilt, something the Swank and his wife thought would be covered by their insurance policy through the FEMA-backed National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).
“We thought, if the house floods, not a big deal,” Swank