New Year, New Home

By Desiree Parker Friday, January 06, 2012

 

James Banks had a tornado of a year in 2011, literally, beginning with the destruction of his home last spring.
On April 16, a tornado tore through his trailer park and ripped the roof off his trailer while he and his girlfriend were inside. He didn’t have home insurance or a place to stay. Since that day, he, his girlfriend and his dogs lived in a hotel and later, in an apartment. Banks says he was just trying to keep from going crazy through most of 2011.

After a year of hanging in there, Banks is starting off 2012 in a new home, thanks mainly to a donation from the Williamsburg Community Foundation and help from other community and government organizations.

On the afternoon of April 16, Banks was sitting outside his trailer. One of his dogs, Shadow, was in a cage nearby.

“It was drizzling, but not enough to run me in,” he said. “The sky was very beautiful. It was pink, and it was quiet – there were no sounds. Then [Shadow] started growling. That was strange, so I thought I’d get in the house.”

His girlfriend was cooking, and Banks went back to the bedroom. His four dogs, Dutchess, Wolf, Diamond and Shadow, followed him to the bedroom and sat staring out the window, he said.

“All I know is then, all hell broke loose.”

His girlfriend ran into the room just as the trailer tilted, and then tilted again.

They lay in bed. “It lasted only five minutes, but it felt like forever,” Banks remembers.

When the tornado passed, the bedroom walls, ceiling and door were intact – but the rest of the house was in shambles. “It was like God put a shroud around the room,” he said.

“We went outside and saw the devastation.”

His life was a whirlwind of change after that moment. Banks was living on disability benefits after two hip replacements and a knee replacement, and was living check to check. He had no home and no one to take him and his family in.

Banks couldn’t keep all his dogs with nowhere to stay and no way to take care of them, so the Heritage Humane Society took in Dutchess and Wolf and found them good homes. Thanks to help from the county and the Red Cross, he and his girlfriend and Shadow and Diamond gathered their undamaged items and stayed in a motel for a while.

Grove Christian Outreach Center raised $31,000 in its Disaster Relief Fund for home repairs, temporary housing, food, supplies and cleanup that assisted Banks and other people in his trailer park who were affected by the tornado. “I gotta thank them, they were beautiful angels,” Banks said of Pat McCormick and Deena Walls from GCOC.

Amy Driscoll, with James City County’s Office of Housing and Community Development, was a big help to him, too, Banks said. The county helped him and his family move into an apartment on Merrimac Trail, where they lived for six months.

Even though he had lots of people helping him, it was a tough year, Banks recalled. “It was miserable. For a while there, I just got up in the morning, said I would take the day what it brings me, God willing, and then do it again.

“For a while I said, Lord, what’s going on.” Banks got word from GCOC that they were working on getting him a replacement trailer, but he had a little bit of trouble believing it would actually happen.

“I had some trouble believing. After a while, people [from the trailer park] told me, ‘your trailer is back!’ but you don’t believe it until you’re in it.

“I was going crazy. By the grace of God, I kept it together.”

According to McCormick, GCOC’s executive director, it “was a little more difficult than I’d anticipated finding a suitable home that was in good condition and able to be moved to Mr. Banks’ previous lot… I had called about and looked at numerous homes since June but with no success.”

Finally, a friend put her in touch with Paul Cimon of U Can Move Mobile Homes, who helped her find the perfect trailer in December.

“Paul did an excellent job getting the home moved, set up and ready for Mr. Banks just in time for Christmas. It was truly a Christmas miracle that everything came together to transfer everything to Mr. Banks on December 23rd.”

Banks said his first thought when he walked into his new trailer was, “God is good!” The new trailer is about the same size as his previous one, but it has one big improvement: two small walk-in showers, which are a big help for him, as he couldn’t get in and out of tubs well with his hips and knee.

“We are so blessed to live in an area where people have a heart for giving for those in need,” McCormick said. “Our community never ceases to amaze me with their generosity and the blessings that continue to pour into the Grove community. Thanks to everyone who had a part in making this Christmas miracle a reality for Mr. Banks!”

Banks gave WYDaily a tour of his new home, with Diamond and Shadow keeping a watchful (and playful) eye out to make sure their master was okay.

Curtains are hung in the windows, the furniture is in place, and Banks can look out his back window and see his best friend’s trailer next door, just like he could before that fateful day last April.

This year could have opened on a much sadder note, but instead, it has started with nothing but blue skies ahead. “It’s gonna be a good year,” he said with a smile. “I got my home, I got my family back here, and thank God no one was hurt.”

Note: GCOC is working on raising money for one more family who needs a new trailer after the same tornado made theirs unlivable.