LIBERTY Volunteers fix home after floods

Eight additional volunteers will be at the Keefer Road home next week.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LIBERTY -- When Lois Maksim answered a knock at the door Tuesday morning, there stood five volunteers from the Wooster area to put her home together.
"It was a total surprise," the 76-year-old Keefer Road flood victim said as she sat at a table off the kitchen.
The first floor of Maksim's two-story house was destroyed during the thunderstorms of July and August.
When the heavy rains stopped and Maksim's home had been flooded out three times, volunteers from Arkansas arrived to remove the mud, debris, furnishings and black mold.
Tuesday, it was volunteers from the Church of the Brethren in Wooster who arrived to install insulation and drywall on the entire first floor, and to repair basement flooring.
One volunteer, 72-year-old Ken Imhoff, said eight volunteers will arrive next week to paint the walls and perhaps make some roofing repairs if the weather is fair.
Imhoff said volunteering and helping others gives him a rewarding feeling.
"We wouldn't continue to do it if it didn't," he asserted.
The Wayne County volunteers were brought in by the Trumbull County Unmet Needs and Long-term Recovery Committee.
Pat Cline, committee chairman, said the Maksim home is among eight being rehabilitated in Liberty, Girard, Warren, Fowler, Youngstown, McDonald and Hubbard.
Her situation
Cline, of Warren, said damage done to the Maksim home is typical of what the high water brought with it, but Maksim's situation isn't typical.
Maksim has throat cancer and emphysema. She recently had all her teeth pulled so she can better undergo cancer treatments.
"It will be a dry and safe place to live," said Cline, who is a full-time emergency room nurse at the Cleveland Clinic.
The agency is a consortium of Mahoning Valley churches and nonprofit agencies that have donated money, volunteers and materials to help flood victims.
Those who need help or want to donate to the committee can call (330) 392-7927.
Meanwhile, Maksim has moved back into her home. She had moved into a Girard apartment, but the $550 monthly rent and $400-a-month mortgage payment on her house became too expensive.
Although she has received a $5,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, she has been unable to get a low-interest Small Business Administration loan.
"We'll make it, I think. I can't let myself go," Maksim said.
yovich@vindy.com