Tabatha and Chris Huddy thought they found the perfect home to raise their two-year-old daughter Abigail.
It had everything they wanted, from a large front yard for Abigail to play in, to a concrete back porch to relax on after a day of work.
“We thought we were going to own the house for the rest of our lives,” Tabatha said.
“It was basically our dream house,” her husband, Chris, added.
That was until last April when what started out as a few rocks falling from the hill behind their backyard became a massive rockslide that destroyed their home and left the property uninhabitable.
“It was the scariest thing I had ever been through,” Tabatha said.
Luckily, nobody was hurt in the rockslide, but the family is still reeling financially.
After the rockslide, the Huddys, who were two months ahead of their house payments, bounced between living at Tabatha’s mother’s house to a house in Glouster before landing at their current rental located just a little ways down the street from their old home.
Unlike their idyllic rural home, Chris said one of their temporary homes on Fairlawn Avenue in Glouster — which they lived in for about three months — was in an unsafe area where drugs were prevalent.
The Huddys were unable to retrieve many items from their old house, but that didn’t stop looters from taking a few remaining appliances and stripping wire out of the house, Tabatha said.
“It’s like a nightmare,” Tabatha said. “I wish someone would pinch me and I could wake up.”
The Red Cross came to their aid after the rockslide, and since then it has been a slow recovery.
“Pretty much everything we have is donated,” Tabatha said.
Their struggle did not end with having to move multiple times in one year or losing their dream home.
The Huddys did not receive any money from the insurance company because they only had standard homeowners insurance and not a special policy called “earth movement” insurance.
“I don’t know that any agent offers that policy in this area,” said Kerensa Kilzer from Salena Insurance, the company that insured the Huddy family’s home. “This insurance company denied the claim as soon as it was turned in because they don’t cover that type of loss.”
The damage done to the Huddys’ property was considered earth movement and not a natural disaster because the Huddys were the only family affected; if multiple homes were affected, it would be considered a natural disaster and therefore would have been covered, Kilzer said.
The Huddys are trying to pursue legal action to have the damages covered, but are having trouble finding a lawyer who will take the case, Tabatha said.
On top of all of this, Tabatha’s father had to get open-heart surgery in August 2012.
“We almost lost him,” Tabatha said. “This last year has hit us hard.”
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@LucasDaprile
How To Help: Girls’ toys for Abigail: anything Hello Kitty or Mickey or Minnie Mouse related. Gift cards: to help with groceries and supplies Household items: blankets, rugs, sheets, curtains, lamps, etc.
