Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Having known Wade and Susan Brooks and their family all of my life and being a citizen of Mathews County, I am appalled at what the county has allowed to happen to them.

I was raised right down the road from their home in Onemo, know all too well about the tide and the low-lying issues and flooding that occurs in that part of the county.

The mere fact that the flooding situation happened is a nightmare in itself, but to resort to contacting FEMA—who is supposedly there to help in these types of situations—and putting your trust in them to help solve the issue and have this happen is just completely unacceptable.

Mathews County required the home to be lifted. Mr. Brooks did his research and found a program that would allow this. Mr. Brooks did not choose the contractor, Mathews County did. If the contractor was incompetent, did below par work, that is the fault of Mathews County, not the Brooks family.

The very idea that the Brooks home has been...