New Christmas traditions: Titusville family's home under repair after flash flooding

TITUSVILLE, Fla. - After a Titusville family's home was destroyed by a flash flood in October, the holidays are looking a little different this year. The Blinson family is currently working on repairs while making Christmas special for their family this year.

The backstory:

Back in October, the city of Titusville saw 19 inches of rain. All that buildup created a foot of water in Chris and Dawn Blinson’s home. 

Neighbors across the affected areas were stuck inside their flooded homes for days. Many homes were impacted and on the day of the rain, motorists were stranded on the sides of the road as they waited out the storm. The city of Titusville declared a local state of emergency due to the persistent effects of the flooding.

"The house was completely flooded. The water stayed in the house for at least four or five days,"  Dawn Blinson said. 

The water destroyed everything four feet and below in their home. 

One of the couple’s children was home at the time of the flooding. She grabbed every towel in the house but couldn't keep up with the water pushing its way in. 

Chirs Blinson is a Navy veteran, and in his office he had military memorabilia that was irreplaceable.  The couple also had love letters they exchanged during Chris’s deployment. Their daughter worked vigorously to pull some of it out, but Dawn shared a majority of it was unsalvageable. 

"We had things, records, things that had been passed down from family member to family member. It all had to go because it had all been touched by grade three water," Dawn told Fox 35 News.

What we know:

Since then, the family – who has flood insurance – has been working on repairs while living upstairs. Unfortunately, much of their Christmas decorations were destroyed in the flood, Chris said. 

"Most of our decorations got ruined in the flood, so again those family heirlooms you just can’t replace, but it’s a fresh start too," Chris explained.

Since before Halloween, the Blinson’s bottom floors didn’t have walls or floors, causing the family to live upstairs with their children and animals. 

The state of their home forced them to move their holiday celebrations to the homes of family and friends – a change Chris Blinson is adjusting to. 

"It’s been different, but we are making some new traditions. Instead of having the stocking here at our house, it’s at another friend's house," Chris said.

The Blinson's are just getting walls back up in time for Christmas, but not in time for Christmas decor. 

Though the Blinson’s couldn’t celebrate Christmas without a tree, the parents said their children went out and bought them a three-foot-tall inflatable tree with the hopes of keeping a piece of Christmas alive in their home. 

"Our hope is by next Christmas we will definitely be able to open presents in our own house and hang up stockings like we should, and maybe even have Thanksgiving here. That would be amazing," Dawn exclaimed.