A self-employed couple lost their home and livelihoods in Hurricane Helene. Their home insurance doesn’t come close to enabling them to rebuild their lives.

Stories like Marsh and Thomas’ are only going to become more common as the climate crisis brings more rain, and with it landslides to vulnerable areas, researchers concluded in a 2016 paper published in Earth-Science Reviews.

Natural disasters have already cost the US in a big way: between 1980 and 2021, the country spent $2 trillion on both immediate and longer-term restoration such as repairing infrastructure, a 2023 article published in The Journal of Climate Change and Health found.

‘Mud and water was being pressed into my nose, ears, and mouth’

Just before 10 a.m., the couple heard a “deep rumbling” and “loud cracking thunder-like noises” a few hundred yards from their home, Thomas said, before the ground dropped out from beneath their feet.

“It happened so fast that there was no chance of reacting. The best way I’ve been able to describe it is as if somebody just threw the house into a blender and hit the puree button,” Marsh said.

Thomas added: “I just fell down and down. I remember my vision going from light to brown to black, and mud and water was being pressed into my nose, ears, and mouth.

“I remember a very specific moment where I kind of surrendered and recognized ‘I am dying right now.’ So I decided to just soften to the experience and moved into more of a place of acceptance and acknowledging all of my blessings.

“I let go of my phone, and it felt really good to let go of the struggle.”

It was then that she was “miraculously spit out” of the sliding earth and found herself about an eighth of a mile from where their home had been, straddling a tree trunk and covered head to toe in mud.

As a veteran, Marsh has access to a medical benefits package, but Thomas is without active health insurance. They will have to cover her medical costs “somehow,” Marsh said. But since he lost his workshop, van, and equipment in the disaster, and Thomas’ job depends on the “strength and mobility” of her body, it’s unclear how.

The couple’s insurer has refused to cover the loss of their home, but “even with the homeowners insurance policy, if it was to completely pay out, it wouldn’t come close to being able to replace our lives,” Marsh said.

For now, Thomas is trying to remain in the present and not worry too much about the future, although it hasn’t fully hit her that they “don’t have a home to go back to,” she said.

Marsh’s brother set up a GoFundMe for the couple, to cover their medical expenses, temporary housing, and living costs as they get situated. Marsh said that although he struggles with the idea of accepting help, he knows they need as much as they can get right now.

“When this whole situation has passed, I’m going to dedicate some part of my life to returning the favor to the world,” he said.