DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – It has been a tough year for Katie Thigpen.

Floodwaters from Hurricane Ian gutted her home on Kingston Avenue in Daytona Beach in 2022 and since then, she has been searching for assistance.

News 6 first met Thigpen in the hours after Ian hit the area.

She was carrying one of her dogs through the floodwaters that covered her street, searching for a dry place for him.

“How is your house?” News 6 asked her then.

“Flooded to above my knees, from front to back,” she said.

ONE YEAR LATER

News 6 knocked on Thigpen’s door just a couple days shy of the one-year mark.

She said the year has not been a good one.

“I’m just doing the best I can with what I have to do,” she said. “I have black mold in my house. I have mushrooms growing out of my walls. FEMA denied to give me any help, you know, so, I’m just stuck with what I have.”

Thigpen provided face masks as News 6 toured the inside of her home, where she is still living.

“I have to spray this daily to try to keep the mold down,” she said, pointing to a bathroom closet where black marks streak up the side of the wall.

In one of the bedrooms, “This was all covered with mildew and mushrooms growing all out. This wall here had the mushrooms growing on it. I showed that to the FEMA lady when she came out, and she’s like, ‘I’d never seen that before.’”

Thigpen did not wear a mask.

“I’ve been in here all this time, you know? Whatever damage is done is done,” she said.

She admitted living like this is not good for her emotional state, and neither is any weather forecast that predicts another hurricane.

“When they say the storm was coming last time, I’m telling you, I literally had a meltdown,” she said. “I just totally panicked. My daughter was calling, and she’s like, ‘Mom, it’s going the other way.’ I just couldn’t get it back. I couldn’t get myself back.”

GETTING RESULTS

Thigpen is classified as “self insured,” which means she does not have homeowner’s insurance.

She said a roofing issue made homeowner’s insurance unaffordable.

She said a previous flood made flood insurance unaffordable.

She said FEMA denied her request for assistance because she did not have that flood insurance.

She showed News 6 a recent quote she received to remove and replace the moldy drywall.

She couldn’t afford the $64,000 price tag.

That’s why she said she is looking for anyone who can help her fix her home.

Otherwise, she admitted, she may be forced to sell her property, which she does not want to do.

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