CHARLES THOMPSON: It's December 18, 1999, and we're in the White

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1 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 1 START OF TAPE ONE, SIDE A THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON DECEMBER 18,1999 CHARLES THOMPSON: It's December 18, 1999, and we're in the White Stocking community real close to 1-40 with Thomas and Elberta Hudson in their trailer, close to the recycling center on White Stocking Road. But this isn't where they live regularly they are survivors of the flood, and so we want to talk to them some about that. First of all, tell us about how you decided to move to White Stocking community, where you grew up and so forth, and then when you decided to come here. THOMAS HUDSON: Well, I really live my home is Salisbury, Maryland, and I was down on vacation. This was four years ago. And I was down in Wilmington working, and I seen the community and it was nice. And I said, Well, I'm going to make this my home, so I left and went back and I packed up and I moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. I started working, and then went shopping for a house to rent. And I found my house in White Stocking so I moved to White Stocking. Then in January I went and got my wife and my family. We moved down here. It is a nice community to raise the kids up and not far from the highway, and don't have a whole lot of traffic so kids wouldn't be running back and forth like on the highway. And it's got a nice church; they have a nice organization, singing, programs, everything. It's a lot better here, that's all. CT: All right. And, Elberta, you were staying up in Salisbury? ELBERTA HUDSON: Maryland, yes. CT: Salisbury. Rob is also here. That's where you're from, right Rob? ROB AMBERG: I'm from Maryland. I'm from Silver Spring. EH: Really? Oh, yeah, we know Silver Spring, Maryland. TH: Not too far.

2 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 2 RA: Not far at all. CT: Elberta, are you from Salisbury, too? EH: Actually, I was born in North Carolina. I was born in New Bern, North Carolina, and we moved to Brooklyn, New York. And I believe it was in 75 we moved to Salisbury, Maryland. So for the majority of my life I've been in Salisbury. Me and my husband we were separated. Well, I decided to go in with the Lord and I became a preacher. We were living together but that wasn't the right thing to do, because it wasn't right. So he moved down here, maybe about three or four years before I came here, and that whole time I was praying for him. I just was confident that he was going to be my husband, you know. July of last year we got married, and January I moved here. And I was excited. I came here before I moved here and I didn't think I was going to like it, but when I came here it was so serene, you know, peaceful. The woods was good, you know. It was good to be in the woods. People was thinking because I come from the city, sort of, that I wasn't going to like it here, but I loved it here when I came and I couldn't wait to come back. CT: Are you in the AME Zion denomination as well? EH: Actually, the church down there at White Stocking, the Sand Hill is the first I had experience with AME. Now, I first come I guess to know the Lord in Kingdom Hall, and then I was in Church of God in Christ, and then I was in the Full Gospel Baptist Church when I moved here in North Carolina. I was looking for a Baptist church, and I decided to pray and ask the Lord where would he have me to go, and so he led me to the AME Church. I didn't know anything about it. It's just been there. But I knew it was the Lord that led me, because the confirmation when I got there, the spirit had let me

3 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 3 know previous to getting there when I was in Maryland, that it was time for me to be ordained to be a pastor. And when I got there the pastor asked me, without even knowing me, she said, "Would you like to be my assistant pastor?" You know, after being there less than a month. I knew it was the Lord, you know. But it was other things, other signs, like for instance, when I walked in the church it was just like I was enveloped with the love of God. We went that Wednesday. Bible study was the first time I went there. And then Sunday, the choir began to sing a song, "It's Over Now," and the spirit fell on me and I'm a radical praiser, so I was all over the place. And it's just been, it's been great besides the flood. And when the flood came, I mean the day before, like when the hurricane came itself, you know, it just was a lot of wind. EH: Strong winds. You could feel the roof and stuff rattling and all. I woke up and we just seen branches and trees, you know, knocked down. I was just like, thank you Lord, because we didn't get a lot of damage. It was just limbs. And my neighbor, she was gone; she was gone for about two weeks. And so I went over to next door and I was cleaning all the leaves and limbs and stuff out of her yard and stacking it in the back. And then that next morning well, we heard one of the neighbors and they were loud. And I guess he said he was working on his generator because they had water. We didn't have water. We were dry in our area, but the neighbors around us had water because we were in what's considered a higher ground. CT: And you lived right across from Elder Pickett? EH: No, no, no. We stayed on the curve. Remember, it's the yellow house right on the curve, beside a brick house. TH: Down the street on that curve, in front of the swamp.

4 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 4 CT: In front of the swamp. EH: We stayed right in front of the creek. And so while we was helping people earlier in the neighborhood get out and stuff, we was thinking we were okay. My husband had already parked his truck to the graveyard. And the van, we had a van and a Lincoln, and so we had it in the yard. I don't know, maybe about 5:30 my husband went out and he said, "The water is in the yard." And I said, "What do you mean, the water is in the yard?" And he said, "The water is in the yard. I'm going to move the vehicles." So he moved the vehicles and nobody else was around then. And I didn't want to leave. I had gotten stubborn. You know, there was a time when I wanted to leave, but at that point I didn't want to leave. My mother, she was visiting from Maryland, and she was upset because I didn't want to leave and everybody else was leaving. But anyway, finally when my husband came back in he said, "We got to go because the water is coming in fast." By that time I went out and the water was up, I guess a little down below our knees. And all of us was still in the house. I had my mother and my four kids and me and him. I didn't know what I was going to do, because I know basically everybody that had their own boats were going, and we didn't have one. CT: Before you go on, you said our kids. How old were they? That's an important point. EH: One, I had a one-year old. He just had turned one. And I have a seven-year old, eleven-year old, and a fifteen-year old. CT: And they were all in the house with you? EH: They were all in the house. And I didn't know where we were going to go, because we didn't have boats; we helped the neighbors with their boats, but we didn't

5 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 5 have one. But by the time we got outside I heard voices, and a rescue team was there with flashlights. And I know it wasn't nothing but the Lord again, you know, because they were just there. I don't know where they came from, but they was just there. And they were coming around the bend with flashlights. I guess they was going to see was anybody else still back there. So it was my family and another family that came out. There was more people back there, but they refused to leave their homes. But my family and another family and when we left out of there my husband's pickup truck, the water was all the way up in his cab. But he drove it through there. Even the man in the Army truck he said they had a hard time getting the Army truck, so he didn't advise my husband to drive this pickup truck through there. But he said it was the Lord's truck. [EH laughs.] He's got The Lord's Prayer on the back of it. And it was the only vehicle that we saved. He drove it out behind the Army truck. CT: Now, tell the story about how you got that truck. You told me today, and why you wrote The Lord's Prayer on the back. TH: Well, I had a Ford truck. I had another Ford truck. It was an '84 Ford F150 pickup. I do concrete and block work, and I was telling my wife I wanted to go get another truck. So we had been doing work at the church, cleaning up [and] hauling off rubbish and stuff from the church. So I told the wife, it's time for me to get another truck. I said the Lord says its the right time we get another truck. So I went on and I was riding out on Market Street. And I spotted this white truck, F150 four-by-four. So I go over on there and I tell the man by the truck, and the guy said what he wanted for the down payment. I said I got a Ford truck home now, but I don't have it with me. I was driving my van. And he said he wanted a thousand dollars down, and I told him I didn't

6 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 6 have no thousand dollars to pay down. And he had never seen my truck. So he said, "I can't do nothing for you at this time." So I said, "Okay." So we walked on, I walked on out. We walked on out and got ready to get in the van. And we were getting ready to pull off of the lot. The man tapped on the window in the office and waved his hand, come on. And when I went in the office, he handed me the keys. And I still got the keys this day. I hadn't ever paid took me two more weeks to get the money together to pay him the down payment on the truck. I began trucking, and I told my wife, "That ain't nobody's but the Lord's truck." And I put The Lord's Prayer on it, and I put my sign on it, my Hudson Concrete Work, and put "Praise the Lord" on the bottom. I ended (), and I tell them, "That's the Lord's truck." EH: Um-hmm. CT: So that night, when you knew the water was going to go in it, did you just know that you could drive it out? TH: I had had the truck up on the hill like this. Picture my house. This is how far the water was we was on dry land all that day, and this is how the water was on the streets, down the streets. This is the water. And this here, () on the boat, helping people, back and forth. We was still on dry land. And this is how the water, how we was boating. There was water all around it. CT: You're paddling in a flat boat. TH: In a flat boat, with paddles EH: Neighbors. TH: helping people to get out down in the lower area. And so I came home, and I told my wife, I said, "We'd better get ready to go," I said, "because I heard some

7 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 7 water coming through the woods." So, by the time I went in the house and got the keys and started the van, and put the van next door in a little higher ground, it had came up to my tire. I said, "There ain't no way in the world we're going to be able to drive these vehicles like this," because we couldn't get by, because the water the water has already done run in. So we took them next door and parked them. And by the time the rescue squad had got us out, the water was up to my window, but there, you couldn't roll your window down. If you'd rolled your window down, the water would roll right inside the vehicle. That's how high the water was. And the guy told us, he said I couldn't drive that truck out of there. And I said, "I'm going to drive this truck out of here." CT: Did you say, "This is the Lord's truck?" TH: I said, "This is the Lord's truck," and I got inside the truck, and it never missed, it never misfired, never stalled out and never sputtered, nothing. CT: The water must have been coming over the hood at that point. EH: Um-hmm. Yeah, it was. TH: It just went on out. EH: It was way over the hood. It was up to the windshield line. TH: You all been down to White Stocking. From White Stocking all the way up here to 53, she came through that water. She ain't never missed (). Cars stall out, won't start, and this and that. Mine, I had no problem. Water was next door, to the next door neighbor. That's why my wife, she was boating, we were boating EH: Yeah, I was excited about it. TH: carrying people out. CT: You kind of look like you are serene, as you were saying before.

8 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 8 TH: Yeah, because, you know, I never I thought we never thought the water that morning, Friday morning, it was dry land. Friday evening it was evacuating time. No rain, no storm calm, sunshine and bright. I would get my water the water was rising a foot an hour, is how fast that water was rising. From Friday morning until Saturday it rose twenty-two feet. It rose twelve thirteen feet over flood level in this area. EH: And you know, if you could see our house now. TH: The total was twenty-two feet high. EH: We had five children at the time, and, me and my husband and five kids, and the house that we were in was a two bedroom house; we were renters, we wasn't buyers, buyers and home owners. I would pray, because when I left Maryland I had a big house, and when I got here I was kind of disappointed. But my husband was, "We're going to buy a home. We're going to buy a home." And I was like, well, Lord, I can't believe you had me come down here in this little house like this, you know. But the Lord just told me to trust him. So when I was, I woke up-they took us when we left here from the flood to the shelter. It was at Burgaw Middle School. And I woke up that morning, and I just was overwhelmed, and the tears just came. I said, "Well, Lord, I asked you for more space." And I look and I see all of us had our own cots, you know, "but I didn't expect you to give more space." But it gave me joy. It was a humor moment. So, you know, it wasn't nothing but Him that was giving me peace in it. But it was just so humorous when you he didn't say you've got to be persistent or you've got to be precise about what you want. So I did ask for more space, and I had more space at the shelter, but that wasn't my idea when I asked him [EH is laughing.]

9 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 9 CT: How was it at the shelter? Describe it. How many people were in there and the types of people who were there? EH: Oh, Lord, it was so many people. It was so many people. It was the Mexican people, black people, white people. And it was a lot of people, you know, young, old, middle age. TH: They had the whole Middle School jammed up with people who started coming. EH: And it was packed. It was cots side-to-side. TH: They didn't have no room to house them all, so they opened up another, bigger school down at Penderlea. I think it was Penderlea. EH: And before we got to that school now, I had went around to register for vouchers, I believe, to get clothes for the family, and when I came back my little girl was running and she was all excited. And she said, "Mom, we got somewhere to live. We've got somewhere to live." And I was like, she don't know what she's talking about, but then when I got to this lady that she knew, it turned out she was a bus driver named Miss Evans. She told me that she and her husband was the care takers of a Christian Camp, and I don't know how many cabins they had at this camp, but that became our residence from that point; we didn't have to go to that other school for shelter, we went to the Christian Camp. They had cottages there, and in the cottages they had like twelve bunk beds, two bath stalls and two showers. So that was just like a taste of heaven compared to where we were, you know. CT: Where you were was just. EH: Just beds. Beds.

10 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 10 CT: Wall to wall beds. EH: That's it. [Laughter.] CT: And you had no privacy whatsoever? EH: No. None at all. CT: About how many people were in the gym, or was that where you were? EH: Well, we were at a school. We were at the school, and some of us were in the hallways. TH: Classrooms and hallways. EH: Hallways and classrooms. Everywhere. CT: About how many people could you see in the room where you were? EH: It was about three wait a minute three families in there. Our family has seven in our family. CT: And the desks were all in the room and everything. TH: They had it all pushed in the corners. EH: In the corner. TH: And they laid the cots out. EH: And we had, there was seven in our family, and the Jordan's had maybe about five or six or seven. CT: And did you know the Jordan's before this? EH: Well, we knew them, but we didn't know them. We'd seen them, you know, but we didn't go to church with them. We went to church with maybe one of them, or two of them. But we really got to know them in a short period of time. [Laughter] They were neighbors, but we didn't know them. But we got to know them.

11 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 11 CT: How could you change clothes and that sort of thing, and wash? EH: Got in the bathroom. We had to go in the bathroom. The boys and girls bathroom. CT: Okay. EH: But when we go to the CT: Then you went to the camp. EH: The Christian shelter, yeah, the camp. We had more privacy. We had privacy for a while, but like I said, we had twelve bunks in there and it was other families that didn't really have anywhere to go, so I told Miss Evans that we didn't mind if someone moved in there with us, being as though it was twelve bunks and we only took up seven, you know. So one of the ladies and her mother moved in there with us for maybe about two weeks, three weeks. TH: The mother I believe her mother stayed a week. EH: She stayed a week. TH: The mother stayed a week. EH: And then the lady stayed for maybe about two or three weeks. But it was an experience. It really was an experience, even being there at the shelter. But I think that's where I really got the most comfort, at the shelter, because it was a serene place, but at the same time that's where I began to see the love of God in the people. Because people was coming by trailer truck loads of things, like cleaning supplies, clothes, food by the truck loads, it was just coming. People was coming, asking us, "What do you need?" You know, personally, like with my little boy, Sammy. It was getting kind of rough carrying him around. Now he was a year old, but he wasn't walking. He was a preemie,

12 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 12 two months early. And he had a little boy that goes to church, which was the neighbor, which was one year old and he was walking at ten months, you know. And then when the flood came Samuel just took off like he was walking, just walking like he's been walking all the time, you know. It's funny. [Laughter] CT: That's funny. EH: It's just amazing how things happen, isn't it? TH: And then we were running back and forth up to FEMA, filling out applications. CT: Where was FEMA? TH: FEMA was up in town across from the courthouse in Burgaw. And FEMA give us temporary houses. At first they had a site that they were going to put all the FEMA trailers in one spot. And then after everybody started talking, we'd rather have the trailers set on our home site. And then they had the inspections the plumbing, electricity, and all. CT: And they hooked up the pipes to the septic tank. TH: Right, FEMA done all that, and they hooked up. But at first they were moving a little slowly getting their trailers down here. And then all of a sudden they started coming. And once they started coming, they started coming. CT: When was that, when they started? EH: And we never seen ours. TH: We had never seen ours. [EH and TH laughing] CT: That is real sloppy.

13 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 13 TH: And they wanted to know how many was in the family, and we told them how many was in the family. And they said we had to have a trailer to suit six, eight, so they said we would have to have one with three bedrooms. So they gave us, we got a seventy-foot trailer the rest of them got, I think EH: The traveling trailer. TH: The traveling trailer. But we got EH: They didn't like them so well. CT: So the one we are in now is a seventy-foot trailer that belongs to FEMA? TH: It's a seventy-five, fourteen that belongs to FEMA. It's a FEMA home. EH: And when we moved in here CT: Was it new? EH: When we moved in here it was new. We had the dining room set, the living room, the sofa. TH: Everything was new. EH: And each bedroom had a full-size bed, a night stand, and a dresser. TH: Everybody is telling us that this is nothing but the Lord, and we said that blessings come from the Lord. EH: People kept telling us that because we were renters we wasn't going to get a, you know, because we rented, we wasn't going to get it. But, like I said, the Lord had, we already knew that we were. We didn't even go and apply for it. The FEMA people came to us and put us on their list. We would go down to the office and check, and they would let us know we were on the top of the list. It took maybe from well we just got our trailer a week before

14 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 14 TH: We got it a week before Thanksgiving. EH: We didn't move in it until a week after Thanksgiving. TH: We moved in a week after that, but we got it a week before Thanksgiving. EH: No, they didn't have everything set up, honey, until the week after Thanksgiving. Right? TH: No, before Thanksgiving. EH: Okay. But anyway, it was around that time. [Everyone laughing] CT: Why is it set up all the way up here? What is it, a mile from your house? EH: Because we were renters. We were renters, and we don't have our property so they put it on, this is called commercial property. CT: Does it belong to the county? EH: It belongs to ( ). TH: It belongs to a private owner ( ) [both EH & TH speaking at once.] Trailer park. EH: At the end with the white fence, with that steel fence around it. That's the owner. TH: It's a trailer park. EH: What they told us when we was initially accepted for the mobile home was that we needed to go out and find a site for it. They gave us two or three references, and this was the most convenient for us because of the kids. We didn't want the kids to have to relocate. Some of the places was in Adkinson and in Wallace, and you know, down 117. But here was the best for us to keep a little bit more stability in the family. CT: Did they have to dig a septic tank?

15 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 15 TH: Septic tank was all here. EH: Everything was here. CT: It was all here. TH: This was a trailer park. EH: There was a trailer here before. TH: There was a trailer on this lot. And there's another lot next to us. CT: Okay. EH: And there was a trailer over there that had been damaged, and they just moved it. And the lady decided not to come back. CT: Okay. TH: But this lot here was already having (). FEMA rent, leased this lot. EH: They told us when they gave us the key that it, that they were in charge. North Carolina would be picking it up from that point, and it was up to their discretion how long we would be here. They said they would come every month to assess and see how we're coming along. We have a possibility of from six months to eighteen months to live rent free, but you know, every month they would come and assess us and see. CT: So they check to EH: But our goal is a five bedroom home. CT: A five bedroom home? EH: That we purchase. That we be able to purchase on our own. CT: Will you purchase one on White Stocking? EH: No. [EH laughing] White Stocking is a great community and everything. We've learned that it's a lot of family here. But I haven't seen any property here that I

16 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 16 personally would want to purchase, except for where we were living. My husband, he offered to purchase it from the people that owned it, and they said they was selling it out to the government. CT: So that means that no one will ever be able to live there, because it is in the flood plain. EH: Exactly. But I think, personally, that White Stocking is a great community. I think that if they attempt to restore it to where it was it could be even greater than it was. I watched the creek before the water came because I was expecting if we got a flood the water to come from the creek first. But it came from the woods, which I wasn't even expecting, period. Water never came from the creek. TH: And the water come two days after the storm, so I think the water was set down on us from some of the dams. EH: From the dams, um-hmm. We never the creek never overflowed to the point where the water not having anywhere to go. TH: It just started to rise. So I think they let some of the dam loose and these creeks, they are not cleaned out for the water to flow. So when the water hit, when it fills up quick, all it got to do is spill over. There's a lot of rubbish and a lot of trash in the way of the water to flow. So when it hits that trees and dams while its built up, it's got to ricochet off in another spot. EH: I said my desire is to have a five bedroom home, but greater than that is to please the Lord. I don't believe the Lord wants me to move from White Stocking right now, because it seems like I'm still here. And I know that He sent me here, so it is still something that He wants to get done before we leave. And I know that's the only way

17 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 17 we're going to be leave, if His will is done. You know, then we could leave easily. I know that we most definitely will have that five bedroom, whether it be here set up in White Stocking or wherever. But His will has to be done first. CT: Are you working anywhere else besides being the assistant pastor? EH: I volunteer. I volunteer. Well, I used to work with my husband, but he's not a good boss. [EH laughs] Well, I tell you what. I work with him pretty good, and then he hollers at me sometimes. And I said, well, I'm going to go where I'm more appreciated. So I went and volunteered different places. [Laughter] TH: When you work for a person, you've got to do what they tell you to do. And she don't want you to tell her what to do, but she can tell you what to do. EH: No, no. TH: That's why she says I'm not a good boss, [both EH and TH laughing] EH: No. What I tell him is that he's so used to being a boss, but he can't look at me as being an employee. We're partners. CT: Um-hmm. Yeah, that's hard. EH: So don't holler. CT: That's hard. EH: But I know there was a lesson in it for both of us, right? Because every time I would try not to go to work with him, I would always seem to have to go to work with him because no one else was there and I didn't want him because he's a workaholic. I want him to last for a while longer, so I know if I don't go help him he'll work himself to death. CT: How many hours do you work a day?

18 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 18 TH: Sunup to sundown. EH: Well, he had to. Since the flood, though, he's only worked, what? One job? CT: Why is that? EH: Since September. The work hasn't well, we just got our phone yesterday. CT: You do concrete, right? EH: We just got a phone yesterday, so that was hard because we wasn't in a stationary place. TH: I lost a lot of tools my trowel machine, my saws, my generators. You can't operate if you don't have the tools. I still haven't got none of them back yet. I've got a couple of jobs coming in starting off first of the year, and I'm going to have to rent the tools to do the work. EH: And he had one of the, because he does like two, two is it help me with it honey. Mobile home parks, trailer parks. TH: You're the boss, but you can't do it without your tools. EH: Well he does, like two trailer parks. He does the driveway, approaches, sidewalks and paths in the trailer park. And he, like he said, he wasn't able to do it because of the tools and everything. But only yesterday one of the men that he worked for, because he couldn't contact him, he wrote him a letter through the mail and it said, "I have work for you. Please contact me soon." So that was just great, you know, that was just awesome. And that's just somebody that, you know, that really cares and is concerned. Now, we were also blessed by people that he worked for, you know, that had just written him out checks. Just to help him get back on his feet. CT: People you know? People you don't know?

19 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 19 EH: People that he worked for. TH: People that I worked for. EH: Had done work for previously. TH: Some of the guys I'd done work for and knew that I was in the flood. And they just wrote me out a check and they just give it to me. EH: Yeah. Yeah. Some of them. That was, you know, quite a blessing for us. CT: Well, today, I don't know if we can put it into words, exactly all that happened. Both of you were there at the church. Can you describe we were going to interview you earlier in the day, and here we are at AME Zion Church and there are a few people. And suddenly it seemed that everybody came. How did all that take place? You were part of it, I know. TH: You've got to remember though, the church we had a church down here in Castle Hayne, that the pastor called me and asked me would I go down and pick up some boxes. CT: Do you know what the pastor's name is? EH: Yeah, my pastor. CT: Oh, your pastor. EH: My pastor. TH: Our pastor, Reverend David. And said the church down there had twelve boxes for twelve different families. Would I come down and pick them up and bring them up to the church, because we was all supposed to meet at the church at 12:30? And then they said they had Santa Claus coming and was going to give the children some gifts.

20 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 20 CT: Um-hmm. EH: But that was different. That was just an all-of-a sudden surprise. Because while we were going to pick up the gifts in Castle Hayne, one of the neighbors had stopped in and said that Santa Claus was going to be there at one o'clock and let my mother know. And that was another neighborhood church, Chapel Hill. CT: A different church. EH: Not Chapel Hill, but CT: Rocky Point? EH: What is it, honey? You know, Jordan Chapel. Jordan Chapel is the church. And you said I don't know the pastor's name, but he's a nice pastor. TH: That's a different (). EH: He was there also. That gave the one that told my pastor about the surprise. CT: His name is Furr. EH: Furr. CT: Reverend Furr. EH: Okay. And we were down there cleaning out the church the week after; the first week of the month we were down there, me and my husband. We love to clean up around the church. Not too many people don't help, but we love to do it, you know. We was cleaning out around the church. Because as my husband said, he's a trustee at the church, and he said that if we get all the dead stuff from on the top then the grass would grow and it would begin to look lively again. So we were cleaning it up and then the pastor from Jordan Chapel came and he had bins of Christmas decorations. And he gave

21 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 21 us one and he gave one to two of the other neighbors. He said, "Well, Santa Claus don't stop coming just because of the flood." And that was really great. That was good. And the people that was there, they had gifts coming from different places, places that we didn't even know about. You see, we got so many gifts. Gifts just been coming and been coming. CT: There are probably forty, fifty boxes over there. EH: I don't know. Yeah. I'm telling you, just been coming clothes and shoes, and it seems like the more I give away, the more comes. It's just overwhelming. You know I been telling everyone that you read and you hear about jubilee, but I been experiencing the jubilee of the Lord ever since it happened. CT: Explain what you mean by jubilee. EH: It's like, you know, abundance of everything that you could want. Even things that you desire. You know, it's like I said when we moved, the house that was damaged that wasn't enough space for a six member family. And it was overwhelming to me when it was, everything was just taken. It just seemed like over night. It was overwhelming. Discouraging and everything else. And then one lady came to the shelter and she sang the song, "One Day at a Time." And I'm the type of person, I just think I've got to be tough and hard, you know, and don't let things affect me like it affects most people. And so I was, I guess I was putting on a hard face. But inside I was just crying. I couldn't release it. And so when she came and sang that song, "One Day at a Time," it just, you know, the release came. I just cried, and I couldn't stop crying. But I needed to cry. But I just but it wouldn't come because of just me, you know. But I thank the Lord for how he knew I needed to cry. But I was thinking, "Well, I've got to

22 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 22 be strong for the kids and for my husband." Then sometimes you well, me, myself, I personally think that leaders want to set a good example. But it's not being real when you don't cry, because you have to cry. I mean that I've learned even in all of this that in order for the Lord to bring the joy or the peace or whatever else we need, you have to make room for it. So if there's a lot of pain and hurting and resentment and all of that there, there's no room for the joy and everything else that you need to make it the rest of the way. I'm sure that's why some people are in the crazy house over at Everetts, or even six-foot under because they didn't release it the way they was supposed to. But I learned that in letting it go and then I seen how the Lord just began to bless, an abundance of things that we needed. I mean, like I said, they was giving us vouchers for clothes and then the social service, they were giving us money. Well, they didn't really just give us money, but wherever you would tell them a source for it, like if you need to pay an electric bill, then you gave them the name and they would pay the electric bill, up until five hundred dollars. And then we went back they had seven hundred and fifty dollars, and then the vouchers. Even with the camp, where we had somewhere to live it wasn't home, but it was a roof over our heads, you know. And I seen people when I went to take my mother back home that was in worser shape than us, that was still in the water; the water was still their homes were still in the water. I thought it was bad that we had to wait for two weeks before we was able to get back and look at our stuff. And I didn't even I seen people going in and cleaning out their house. I just couldn't even bear it. Every time that I would go there I would get a headache. I mean, I would get a real bad headache. And people were saying, "It's probably the mildew." It wasn't the mildew, it

23 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 23 was just looking at it, you know. But after a while I just knew that I had to do it, and so we just went and we just throwed it all out. CT: What were you looking at when you saw those things? TH: Furniture. All our furniture. Things we had worked for. CT: That gave you the headache? EH: Yeah, everything. CT: Things you had worked for? TH: Worked hard for. CT: What all was in there? TH: Your living room, your couch, your refrigerator, your gas stove, freezer. EH: And computer. TH: Computer, the TV, your VCR. CT: Clothes? TH: Clothes. EH: It's amazing, because before we could even get in the house we had an addition to our house and then we had outdoor furniture and had a deep freezer and all. And it was like everything was upside down. It was just it didn't seem like water. I don't know what it seemed, but it was just a mess. And I just couldn't see myself going in there and cleaning it out. I just couldn't. And my husband said, "Well, don't worry. I'll go in there. I'm going to do it by myself." I said, "Yeah, you sure are going to do it by yourself, because I'm not going to help you." But I did help him. TH: Bicycles and everything. CT: Bicycles and exercise equipment?

24 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 24 EH: That was on the outside. TH: These here are two of the pictures of the inside, but they didn't come out because I didn't have no flash. Didn't have a flash with me. EH: You don't have any pictures of the stuff inside? TH: I don't know where () the pictures are at. EH: You look on the dresser? TH: That's where I got them from, on the dresser. CT: There's some. EH: Well anyway, did you look in that top drawer? The furniture and everything. Even the pictures that we had, all our wedding pictures and stuff I just thought I was going to put them in the top drawer and they would be all right. But it's amazing because my husband bought me this watch. I said, "I don't want a cheap watch. I want a watch that cost a lot of money." And he really sacrificed and brought me this watch. CT: It's a gold watch. EH: Well yes. And it's a (). And I was so tickled because he paid a hundred some dollars. We couldn't even really afford that. I said to myself, I never would have time to think about getting my pocketbook. I left my pocketbook there, you know. And my watch was on the dresser. And I was just thinking about these things. I was thinking, he bought me the watch for my birthday, or Mother's day, or one of those times. And when he went back he left his money. He had changed clothes and left his money in the robe or whatever. The money and stuff was still there; we didn't have any money. And when he went back the money was in his robe, of course. But the watch was on top

25 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 25 of the bed and the water didn't get to the watch. I don't know how that happened. It was on the top of the dresser, I mean. And the water didn't get to the watch. But everything else around it was messed up. It was just so unreal, you know. I was just so glad to have my watch. I said, "Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus." And some things we thought would be destroyed wasn't. He had a TV, that TV it was in the living room, but it was on an entertainment center much higher that that one. It was way up high. And everything we had stacks of bibles and educational, you know, religious books, all of them got destroyed, but the TV didn't. TH: They're around here somewhere. EH: I said that top drawer, honey. TH: What top drawer? I'm looking there. EH: I don't know where it is, then. CT: That's okay. EH: Things, I mean like it was just unbelievable. We were able to save a few things like we didn't have room for our clothes in the house so I had bought those Tupperware bins. And when we went back and we cleaned up the stuff, two of the bins, the water never got to them. They was justfloatingin the water. Then I looked at my bin and it was trashed. Everything that was my little boy and my little girl, their bins was sealed, but mine was drenched to the gills. But then the people began to bring me clothes, and one lady brought me the most beautiful suits, I mean, with sequins and gold, and the shoes that match. Oh, it was just so exiting. This is like sixty, seventy dollar shoes. And I had five or six pair and the dresses and skirts to go with it. And I said, "Oh, the Lord is just blessing me and dressing me better than I could dress myself." And then

26 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 26 I was testifying in the church and the woman came to me and said, "You know what my daughter said? My daughter said that you was so happy, like, you were like glad that the flood came." And I was like, "How can people be so naive?" Who would be glad that a flood came? But it was just a joy of the Lord and just seeing, you know, and being grateful for where he brought me. Because I had five other people in my family, and I could have lost one of them. People were losing family members, you know. And it was just a blessing that we had each other. I mean, regardless of everything that we lost it was a blessing. I had to learn that even in the midst of theflood,because where we were in the camp, the people gave us clothes and stuff. I was sorting through the clothes, and I had put some things back in the bag for my husband to take to the shelter because it was things we couldn't use. And then I discovered that he had took one of my daughter's shoes, and it was a really nice, expensive shoe. I was real upset with him, and when he came back, I was like, you know, "You put the shoe in there!" And I was getting really hyped up. And then the Lord, it's like the Spirit spoke to me, and said "You haven't gotten it." You know, because the bible said that we have to wear the things of this world as loose garment. And even though I thought I had released it, because I lost everything in theflood,i still hadn't released the things that I thought I had released because I wouldn't have got so upset over that shoe. I was still attached to things. And then I understood what the Lord was trying to teach me don't get attached to these things, because these things is not going to be here. I had to keep my focus on Him, because if I kept my focus on Him, everything that I want or need, He was going to bring it to me. So I seen people that I thought maybe was committed to the Lord go through things and not be able to survive, because they didn't keep their focus on Him. They're

27 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 27 not appreciative. I've seen so many people ungrateful for the things that they have received, because yeah, well, I hear people say they lost their home. And even though they think that we can't empathize with them because we didn't own our home, it was our home, you know. We paid rent like they paid mortgage, and the mortgage is still going to be there like the rent is still going to be there. But you've got to be grateful for what you have, you know, in order to get more. I think when you lose the focus of what you have, you're not going to get as much as you could have because you're not focusing on the right one. You're just looking at things. I believe in the Lord teaching me to have a humble and meek spirit. We wouldn't be as blessed as we are, and it's honey coming. It's just honey coming. And we don't have no reason to complain, even in the situation that we've been in. We don't have no reason to complain, because the Lord has been blessing us. We really don't. Yes, we need things, but we can wait on them because we know if He brought these things, he's going to bring the rest of the things that we need. CT: Tell me how you became a pastor in the AME Zion Church. EH: Well, so far they told me when I joined the church I turned over my preaching license to my pastor. I sat under her for a year, and after a year they ordained me. But I have to go to school. CT: Where do you go? EH: Well, my pastor hasn't let me know what school I go to yet. But it will be a year in February, so I'm pretty sure she's going to let me know soon. I've been inquiring to different people and they said there's a few in Wilmington.

28 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 28 CT: Both of you have tremendous faith and have shown it to us today. What is your you've probably thought about this. What is your feeling about why the flood came? TH: My feeling about the flood is that they sent the water down here, all of it at one time, by the Lord. It's the Lord's water, but man controlled it and then released it. So it wasn't by the Lord for being what's called no disaster or flood. It was flood, man made flood in my belief. We went through the storms the wind, the rain and blowing trees down and all that. But it was these dams that hold this water back. And, for some particular reason they didn't release the water at the time that they was supposed to. They hold it back, and it got too much on them. Instead of destroying them, they just released it on someone else. They didn't know how much damage, they didn't really know how much damage it was going to do until they done it. And now they're slow to realizing, but they really don't want to commit it, because they have never said it. But the Lord is in control of everything, so He will provide. EH: I personally believe that the Lord did send the flood, regardless of them opening up the dams or not. The Lord did send the flood, and it wasn't to take nobody away. It wasn't to take a life or anything, but it was to wake us up to the things that we need to do. You know, just like you hear the people talking about Y2K, we need to focus on the Lord and seek him to find out what it is that we need to do for his will or for his glory. I don't think the community of White Stocking was so bad, but I know the grace and favor of God is good. I know that it had to be by his grace that we were all able to leave this place with our health, with our good health, and even to return, whether we were in our homes or not. Maybe, like I said from the camp, we became attached to

29 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 29 materialistic things. We got wrapped in our jobs. We got wrapped up in our homes. You know, we just got wrapped up in the wrong things. We wasn't seeking the Lord. We wasn't doing what the Lord would have us to do. And I think we're blessed that we got a wake up call such as we did. You know, because even a couple of nights ago, Wednesday night, we went to Raleigh and everything worked out good. We went there, you know, to support the proposal, you know, to ask them for 6.5 million dollars for the people. And the Lord blessed. They got 8.5 million dollars to come back and take care of the White Stocking, not White Stocking, but the Pender County community. I just know that we have to do things in the order that God would have us to do. I'm not so much as blaming it on the people, because I know if it wasn't in God's will it wouldn't have never happened. END OF TAPE ONE, SIDE A; BEGINNING OF TAPE ONE, SIDE B. EH: So, we can't change one another, but the Bible says we have to work our own soul's salvation with fear and trembling. If we don't fear the things that's going on around us we won't seek the one that wants us to seek Him. When I get a chance to open up my mouth and speak, I let them know that it's not no chance, not no coincidence, not no people that let go the dams, but it's God that's speaking to us. It is just as plain as my hand in front of me. That's what it is, you know, that's what it is. I mean, people wouldn't fear Y2K if they know the Lord, because they'd know that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. So what is there to be fearful of? If you know Him, Y2K or any other catastrophe could come, but we still will be delivered. However, God can get our attention. It's only by His grace and His mercy that he's allowing us to be here to get it. Because some people is not here, and at least we are here.

30 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 30 CT: There's a lot of talk about hogs and development, and highways, and all that associated with the flood. And people talk about the smell of the water and so forth. Do you have any thoughts about that? EH: Well, we came down here at the beginning. We seen the goats and the horses and all that, you know. All that the people had had in the community was dead, and they hadn't had a chance to remove them. And they stayed there for a while. I guess that was and all the water was in the houses and then the smell, it still is unbearable, you know. They're doing whatever they can to clean it up, but it's going to be a process. It's something for everything. I mean, I look down at the neighbor, and he's tearing down his home, and I can't imagine what he's going through having to tear down his home. But I was told that the odor was so bad in there, there wasn't no way that they could live back in it. But then, you never know. Maybe they believed in the Lord for a new home and now they're going to get one. Maybe they can't see the goodness for focusing on the bad. But it is good that's coming out of it. A lot of people I've talked to that lost everything in their home and they were homeowners, and they gutted and everything at least every person I talked to said that they prayed and asked the Lord for something. Like this lady, for instance, she said that she prayed and asked the Lord that she be debt free before she died. She told me, I guess a few weeks ago, that she only had five months, or five more payments on her car. Well, she said that when her insurance paid off they paid the full value of her car, so she was able to get a new car and have thirty-six dollars left over. Now, you know, if she could just look at how the Lord did that, and not think about how much it is going to take for her house to be rebuilt if He could do that, surely He could take care of her home. And already, the church has begin

31 THOMAS AND ELBERTA HUDSON 31 to come in and, you know, wire it up and put the plumbing in and whatever she needs in there. I was told she had to sign her FEMA check over to the church to help, but the FEMA didn't give her nothing but five thousand dollars anyway and she probably had a seventy or eighty thousand dollar home, so she couldn't do nothing with the five thousand dollars. But it's a blessing to be able to sign it over to somebody, and they come in and restore your home. I'm sure they're going to put the furniture. But the Lord's been blessing. You know, people have been writing out vouchers for furniture for people that don't have furniture. It's just like all the bases has been covered, but some people are not humble. I also experienced people that had, like I said, that was buying homes who looked down on me and my husband because we didn't own a home. And those people we see, when they had things, they stand back and they watch other people going to get things like they are too good to go and get. You can't expect to be blessed if you can't be humble, because you miss a lot that the Lord has for you if you're not a humble person. Like, say, for instance, my son, he loves name brands. Tommy Hilfiger, you name it, that's all he wanted. And the school, when we was at Burgaw Elementary, when they brought in the plastic bags full of clothes he was in there, you know. And it was amazing to me to see him, because I personally wouldn't have thought he would have done it. But then, afterwards we went to the camp, and his grandmother up there in Maryland sent down a whole bag full of the name brand stuff. But he had to be humble first, and willing to go through that to get what God had for him. That's just the way I see how it works. CT: You said back in thefirstpart of the shelter stay, there were whites, and there were Mexicans, and there were African-Americans all together. And you what