Linda Young, left, and her parents, Shirley and Robert Welker, cut drywall in Linda’s trailer on the Muscatine Island Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Beth Van Zandt/Muscatine Journal

MUSCATINE ISLAND — For many people, battling emphysema while raising three teenagers would be enough of a challenge, but for Linda Young, that’s only the beginning.

This summer, Young’s mobile home and property at Stephen Road were flooded when seep water saturated the Muscatine Island area.

Though the water has receded, she’s been fighting its effects ever since.

Her biggest heartbreaker is having her granddaughter, Renee Lynn Young, 15, and grandson, Robert John, 17, both of whom she has raised since they were very young, go stay with other families while she puts the house in order.

Young’s oldest grandchild, Tasha Young, 19, whom she also raised, is attending her second year at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake.

Young said she agreed to raise her son’s children after he and their mother had difficulty working things out.

Young and her grandchildren live on their own land in a trailer that was supplied by the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the Flood of ’93.

“We were totally flooded out of our other mobile home that year,” said Young, 58. “FEMA bought us a mobile home and Louisa County told us where to park it to avoid flooding, but this time we were flooded with seep water.”

Seep water saturates the ground around bodies of water and continues moving forward, overwhelming the land around it from the ground up. It recedes slowly.

“My yard looks terrible,” said Young, as she walked around the large, above-ground swimming pool her grandchildren used to enjoy. Her vegetable garden was idle too, with only the wooden stakes to indicate tomatoes and vegetables had grown there in the past.

“I don’t have time to do anything out here,” said Young. “We are rebuilding the walls and had to put in new installation. Winter is coming.”

Young doesn’t have any insurance to fix the damage and her only income is the $583 she receives each month from Social Security disability.

Despite her illness, Young and her parents, Shirley and Robert Welker, both 78, want to make the children’s lives as stable as possible and have been working together to restore the trailer.

 “The emphasis is to get the kids back home,” said Robert, who retired from Muscatine Power and Water in 2007.

The trio have put up new walls and fix the plywood floors.

 “We have the drywall up,” said Young. “And now I’m sanding the walls.”

Linda injured herself during the work, when she smacked her hand with a hammer.

Shirley, who works tirelessly alongside her daughter and husband, using a cane for support, winced when she recalled her daughter’s injury.

“I felt so bad for her,” she said.

The Welkers, parents of three daughters, built their own family home many years ago in Muscatine and are drawing on that experience to retore their daughter’s trailer.

“The hardest part about working on a FEMA trailer, is finding the support studs in the wall,” said Shirley.

Young applied for FEMA assistance after the June flooding and was granted $4,600 of the $8,000 she needs to complete the repairs.

“She got some help,” said Robert. “But she’s running out of money for materials.”

Shirley said she appealed the FEMA decision and was turned down.

Sharon Gibson-Ellis, chief operating officer of the United Way of Muscatine, said her agency and the local Muscatine/Louisa Recovery Committee may be able to assist.

The committee set up a Disaster Recovery Fund in June of 2007 after the June 1 tornado to give local corporations, faith organizations and individuals an opportunity to donate to long-term recovery efforts in Muscatine and Louisa counties.

“I can’t say for sure she will be eligible, but she can come down to our office and apply,” Gibson-Ellis said.

Young may also be eligible for assistance in rebuilding from local volunteers and professionals who specialize in construction project and work with the Recovery Committee.

Reporter contact information

Cynthia Beaudette 563-262-0527

cynthia.beaudette@muscatine