This edition of Narrative continues our look back on the 10th anniversary of the historic “thousand-year” flood of October 2015, which devastated several communities across South Carolina.
The following year, Columbia residents Davis and Maegan Latham shared their experience of being displaced after their family’s home was damaged by the massive floodwaters. The siblings struggled to keep up with the demands of high school while living in “less than ideal” circumstances, having to travel to school at an inconvenient distance. In the process, they learned valuable lessons about resilience and perseverance in the face of unfortunate events.
They spoke with StoryCorps, a national initiative to record and collect stories of everyday people. This excerpt was selected and produced by Linda Nunez.
TRANSCRIPT:
Davis Latham: It was very weird. This, like…you go from having everything in your room where you can get all your schoolwork done and everything to, like, now you're at a weird place where you don't really…it's just, nothing is ideal. You know, we were out of school for probably two and a half weeks, and then we were late-start for another two weeks, so we missed so much school from it. And then once you get back from that, it was, like, now you have to pick up and you have to do everything that you've missed in those few weeks and get it done well and try not to be worried about it in this, like, non-ideal environment. So, it was an interesting thing, but it certainly wasn't impossible. I mean, I think it teaches you a lesson about how if something happens to you in your life, you just have to move on to it, and you still have obligations to get done. It might be better for you personally to stop in your life and focus on what you need to get done, but you have responsibilities to other people to get work done and to do your best at other things that may not be most important in your personal life.
Megan Latham: Well, Davis stayed in town with my grandmother, and so, that was hard not having a big brother around, even though he's annoying. But I stayed with my parents down in Chapin, which is a good 45 minutes away without traffic, and there's lots of traffic all the time. So, it was okay at first. Like, you know, we were so lucky that we had a place to go that was our own, and we were extremely fortunate with that. However, I started getting upset because I would wake up at 6 or earlier and get on the road and go to school, and then leave and come home and be stuck in 5 o'clock traffic. And that was my day, usually. And I started getting upset because my friends would be like, “Hey, we're having a group that wants to come and, you know, have breakfast and study for our test,” or whatever. And I could never make it because I was so far away. And, I ride horses, and my barn is another 20 minutes away, or 15 minutes away. And, so, that kind of was, like, my sanctuary at that time, because I would just go and spend all day there, because that was the only place that stayed the same for me during the flood. Because school, like Davis said, we had weeks where, like, it was late-start, and everyone was like, “Okay, you know, it's alright.” And then after that, it was kind of like everyone just went back to normal. And, so, the kids that were affected by the flood…we had a little bit of a harder time, because everyone started going back into normal routine, but we didn't have a normal routine. And it just. It messes with you. And, so, that was hard. But you learn what's important, and you learn that, you know, sometimes you're just gonna have to get over it.
