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Portsmouth woman loses apartment, dog to flood waters in Churchland

Posted at 4:16 PM, Sep 09, 2014
and last updated 2014-09-10 09:15:57-04

Portsmouth, Va. - A woman in Portsmouth lost all of her belongings and her dog when her apartment flooded during Monday’s rain.

Mrs. Copeland lives in a first floor unit of the Village at Western Branch apartment complex in Churchland. She came home to her apartment on Monday after work to find the water had risen knee-high in every room.

Her 12-year-old dog, Shaggy, drowned during the flood. He was found under the bed.

“It’s just a mess. It’s like a hurricane hit everything everywhere,” she says.

NewsChannel 3 took action to help the Copeland family find dry clothes and any belongings that were salvageable, valuable, or that still work.

“My walls are damaged, my furniture is damaged, my bed is damaged, everything… cookware… everything is damaged,” Mrs. Copeland says.

It’s not only difficult for Copeland to come back to see the damage and start to clean up, but especially hard for her without her dog Scrappy.

“It’s really hard because my dog is not here. I just miss him so much. I had that dog for 12 years,” she says.

The apartment complex is working with families on the first floor to move them to a second floor unit, or to other properties they own in the area.