Alex Slitz/Daily NewsAn exhausted Matthew Craft stands in the living room of the temporary apartment he is living in with his wife, Brittany, and daughter, Chaily. The Crafts’ first-floor apartment at Windover Place was flooded during last weekend’s storm.

Bags filled with household items lined the walls, some items lingered outside the front door.

Sitting in the middle of the living room floor Friday afternoon, Brittany Craft sighed, looked around at the randomly placed furniture and things, and said, “Friends have busted their tails getting stuff in here … I’m going to have it livable by tonight.”

For several days, the Crafts have been moving what they could salvage to a new, but temporary, apartment on the second floor, after their home in the Windover Place apartment complex sustained heavy water damage.

Many across several counties endured the monsoon-like rainfall last weekend and were displaced by it, like the residents in eight ground-level units at Windover Place who were forced to seek shelter elsewhere when their apartments flooded.

“It’s been stressful … losing everything, wading in the water trying to salvage what I could, which was little,” said Ora Bell, 55, resident of apartment 110 at Windover Place on Russellville Road.

Bell, who just took temporary custody of her 7-year-old great-niece, was placed in another apartment on the property, like the Crafts. Curtis Simpson, resident in apartment 111, has been staying with his sister. He lived in his apartment for almost two years.

“It’s been hell,” he said.

Simpson, 67, is a diabetic who has trouble with his leg. Friday he sat at the complex office, looking out over the water being pumped away.

“I just got the rest of my things out. A lot of stuff was ruined,” he said.

In the wake of losing everything – food, clothes, furniture and some things the residents cannot afford to replace – displaced residents are seeing support from the community, friends and family, and outside agencies that have come to help.

Bell said the American Red Cross had been to the complex, handing out Visa gift cards worth $375, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is slated to be on the property Monday.

“The boys from the neighboring community came, churches have offered help, Kentucky United came and moved the residents, local eateries have been bringing in food,” said Windover Place property manager Pat Baker, whose shoes squeaked from the water in them. “And the residents here have been working as a team. They’ve been supportive of each other.”

Baker said they are pumping out as much water as they can, but at least 100,000 gallons of water remained in the field next to the complex. She said the week had been unbelievable and emotionally draining, watching the residents try to salvage their personal belongings.

Since May 1, Matthew Craft, has been trying to secure donations, not just for his family but the others in the complex who were flooded out, said Brittany Craft, his wife.

Donations of clothing and even mattresses, which are being stored in the complex’s community room, have been coming in.

Baker said the owners of the complex are coming to assess the damage, after which construction will begin to repair the damage. She said they have already started tearing out carpet, drywall and insulation. Cabinets will have to be torn out, tile , electrical wiring and baseboards will have to be replaced.

“Basically anything that had been affected by water will be removed,” she said.

Not only has the flood been an emotional ride for the residents, it is also a financial burden. Some residents, like the Crafts, have not been to work for a week, cutting into wages used for household expenses.

“We live paycheck to paycheck, and we can’t afford to lose a paycheck,” Brittany Craft said.

“For me, I just don’t have the money,” Bell said.

Bell said she never thought she would be flooded out.

“My biggest fear now is getting everything back, move back into the same apartment, and thinking every time it rains whether it’s going to flood again,” she said.

After winding down from her daughter’s first birthday party April 30, Brittany Craft was sitting in her bottom-floor apartment May 1 doing laundry when she first noticed water on her floors.

“I thought my washer was leaking,” Brittany Craft said.

It wasn’t until after her neighbor said her bathroom floor was flooded did she realize it wasn’t the washer leaking, but rainwater that had overflowed a retention pond next to the complex.

“It was coming in through the walls,” she said. “It took an hour for the water to be at our ankles.”

Although frustration has run high, the residents of Windover Place are starting to put their lives back together.

“It’s been hectic, crazy. It’s just been,” Brittany Craft said, her voice trailing off slightly. “I’ve been in 10 different directions. We don’t have renters insurance, and even if we did, it wouldn’t cover floods. But we’ve been lucky. We’ve had furniture donated, churches have pitched in.

“If it wasn’t for God, we wouldn’t have gotten through this. It could have been much worse.”