ALEXANDER COUNTY, N.C. — In the early morning hours of November 12, 2020, several inches of rain fell in Alexander County. 

What You Need To Know

  • On November 12th, 2020, several inches of rain fell in the early morning hours in Alexander County.
  • More than 30 families lived at Hiddenite Family Campground
  • The campground flooded and five people lost their lives including a 1 year old boy.
  • Ken Korte has owned the campground for 20 years and is doing what he can to clean up the campground and help families move back.

 

About 30 families lived at the Hiddenite Family Campground and had to escape rushing flood waters.

Sadly, five people drowned, including a 1-year-old boy. Ken Korte has owned the campground for 20 years. Korte says the insurance for the campground does not cover flooding and only a handful of families had paid for individual insurance on their campers.

This means that clean up, including digging out people's belongings by hand, has fallen on Korte and his daughters. He has no equipment to help dig out the tons of sand left behind by the flooding.

To help families who aren't emotionally ready to return, the sisters have been in knee-deep mud and debris digging for people's belongings. They have found wallets, purses, safety deposit boxes, and other personal belongings that were thought to have been lost by the water. All the digging done with minimal equipments and mostly by hand.

Korte does not have any heavy machinery to make clean-up easier. His daughter's say Korte has been at the campground cleaning up almost every single day since the flood.

Some of the families are staying in campers nearby donated by Samaritan's Purse, but only have six months until they have to figure out where to live.

Korte's only income was rent paid by the families at the campground, so his money is low.

The family must also separate the house trash, kitchen supplies, bedding, and furniture from the debris and tree branches before they can haul it to the county landfill. It's a process that's quite a tall task.

Korte's daughters are asking for help from anyone who can donate heavy machinery to help clean out the sand and debris.

"He needs front loader, or a backhoe, and a dump truck, if he had one, he could do a lot," says Korte's daughter KD.

There is a GoFundMe page to raise money for clean up.

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