After Sandy: ‘I Thought We’d Be Living Like This Forever’

Their biggest inconvenience was not having a usable toilet. For bathroom breaks and coffee, Sharon Coles and her fiance James Thompson had to a make the nearly half mile trek to the Wawa at the corner of Penn Valley Road and Bristol Pike.

It was one year ago this week that Coles and Thompson had a 65-foot-tall pine tree crash through the roof of their Falls Township trailer home. The storm damaged the pipe to the septic tank and only the shower and sink worked.

However, the couple recently received a new trailer through a grant and help from Trevose’s Weisser Homes and the United Way of  Bucks County.

“I thought we’d be living like this forever,” said Coles as she spoke of the tarp that has covered the large hole in the roof of old trailer that was left behind after a tree crashed through a spare bedroom.

“It was depressing,” Thompson said.

“I wrote the White House out of frustration and FEMA called me a few weeks later,” Coles said. Unfortunately, FEMA said they couldn’t help because Falls Township was not a federal disaster area.

After being turned down for a new trailer by FEMA, Cole said she received word through Danielle Bush at the local United Way that they qualified for a new trailer.

“I was in a parking lot and just started crying when I got the news,” she recalled recently.

The news was much needed after weeks where Coles said she and Thompson felt “alone” after getting turned down for help.

After a year of living in trailer with one room sealed, the couple is thrilled to be working on the final steps before moving into their new digs.

Coles said she hopes to be completely moved into the new home in a few weeks and plans to hold several Christmas parties for friends and family.

“I come in here and I imagine seeing the whole family sitting,” Coles said as she gave LevittownNow.com a tour of the kitchen in her new home.

Inside their old trailer, the couple was afraid that critters would enter the structure like the  stink bugs and bees that already had. Thompson said,  the thought of a fire in the damaged trailer “terrified” him.

The old trailer, which was put in place in 1969, was also knocked two feet off its base. Soon it will be demolished.

For Coles and Thompson, who met by chance in line at a bank 11 years ago, the new trailer is the start of a new life.

“We’re hoping to get married in spring,” Cole said. “New home, new husband!”