FORT OGLETHORPE, Ga. (WDEF) – In Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, one family is left picking up the pieces after floodwaters destroyed everything they owned.
Timothy and Lauren Gipson, along with their three-year-old daughter, say navigating this hardship has been overwhelming.
With nothing but the clothes on their backs, they are now asking the community for support—whether through donations or simply by sharing their story.
What was once a safe home for the young family is now in ruins.
Timothy recalled the moment the water began to take over their home.
“At about four hours, it was seeping through every wall and every baseboard. It was coming up through the toilet, it was coming up the bathtub. And it really became just a panic situation where we had to run. We had to grab what was valuable and get out, and it continued to rise. It got about two and a half feet up the wall, and everything—everything as we know it—is lost at this point.”
He says the family’s greatest concern now is for their daughter.
“It’s not so much about our lives. It’s so much about our little girl’s life. She’s going to walk into a home when this gets fixed with no bed, no toys, no clothes—nothing. Everything that we know here, and everything in this house, is all we have. And it’s all gone.”
Lauren Gipson, fighting back tears, shared how difficult it has been to help her daughter understand what’s happening.
“She wanted to come back and drink the water out of the house so she could come back home,” Lauren said. “It’s not fair for us to have to try to explain to our children: ‘Baby, if we can’t take you home, it’s not our fault.’ I wish I could take her back to her bed that she absolutely loves, and we could continue to be the happy family, enjoying our time together. But now, everything is gone.”
The Gipsons also expressed frustration with management at their apartment complex, saying they feel left in the dark about how the aftermath will be addressed.
“Anytime we would bring up issues, we’d just be told, ‘We’ll get around to that when we get around to it,’” Timothy said. “After the flood happened, anytime we tried to question the front office, it was, ‘I don’t know, I can’t tell you that.’ You’ve got families without homes here, and you don’t know why or how or what you’re going to do about it? How are we expected to stay calm and know that our home’s going to be restored if you leave us in the dark? What are we supposed to do?”
The family is pleading for help to rebuild their lives after losing everything in the storm.
We have reached out to the apartment complex for comment but have not yet received a response.
