Lawton family of 8 displaced after flash flood destroys home

A family of 8 in Lawton is without a home after a flash flood destroyed their residence on April 26th, the parents told News 9 on Monday. 

Veronica Perez said she and her husband, John Eric Alcala, are staying in a hotel room while their six kids are staying with their grandparents in Texas. 

Perez said that she did not expect to spend Mother’s Day without them. 

“That was the most difficult-- seeing or trying to go through the day... but knowing like, ‘OK, well, our kids weren't here, but I mean right now, it's just what we have to do,’” said Alcala. 

April 26th started with normal showers, but things quickly took a turn for the worse when the couple got flash flood alerts on their phones. 

“Two minutes later, our kids were knocking; ‘It’s flooding in the house,’” Perez recalled. “We get up and see, and then we're like, ‘what do we do?’ We've never been through anything like this -- and we have little ones -- and the water is coming high already.” 

She said the water touched everything. 

“Clothes was already floating everywhere. Shoes, all of our kids' toys; it's one of those that you work hard for your belongings, and 5-10 minutes of this, it was just gone," Alcala explained. 

The family said they did not have insurance. 

"Our beds soaked up water, so I turned the key, I went in and looked through, and it's just mold everywhere; stinks really bad. You can tell like from the water just sitting, and it's really bad," Alcala remembered. 

Despite having lost all of their material things, the family shared that they are determined to move forward. 

"I went straight to work the next day after all this happened. One of my coworkers gave me jeans and another pair of boots, shirts, and I just went straight back to work. I just kept going,” said Alcala. 

The parents said it’s their six children who keep them going. 

Perez said her family is in need of beds, couches, a washer/dryer, and a car. If you’d like to donate to their GoFundMe, click here. 

Pecan Valley Apartments, where the family lived, declined to comment. News 9 also reached out to the complex’s management company but did not hear back.