06-02-2025
Community Heroes: Buffalo Disaster Relief flipping former motel to house flood victims
UNICOI, Tenn. (WJHL) — A couple is giving a run-down former motel new life while helping those who lost their homes in the flood. They are from middle Tennessee but moved here after Hurricane Helene.
Melanie Klump and her husband bought the motel and are turning it into a space where displaced people from the hurricane can live while they figure out their next step.
They plan to use the facility to help flood victims–and others in the future.
It was once a motel with a high crime rate. Now, the former Budget Inn is getting a facelift thanks to the Klumps and the folks with Buffalo Disaster Relief.
'So [the] main goal right now is getting the displaced, whether or not they come from North Carolina from Virginia, from South Carolina, from Tennessee,' Klump said. 'However, we need to get these people stability'.
The Klumps have gutted each room, and are ready to implement the next step in the process.
'We have volunteers that are on standby. We have contractors that are on standby. We have been making sure that we are following everything to a tee to make sure that we go through the fire marshal and get their approval first we get our proper building permits.'
The group needs donations, skilled workers and volunteers for demolition and utility installation.
'We need them to understand that this is going to open up 69 doors for people. So it's not about us or Buffalo Disaster or anything, it's about the displaced, it's about the people that are living in campers or living in tents that don't have a home to go to.'
Klump says her long-term plans for the building will shift to another population in need after flood recovery has dwindled: Veterans.
'The long-term goal is to get these guys, educate them get them stable, get them into permanent housing,' she said. 'And then from there, we are we've been reaching out to the Veterans Association to see what we can do. Long-term goal, there's always going to be a crisis in the need. But the first and foremost is the hurricane.'
It's a commitment to an area hard-hit by the hurricane that will have a lasting impact.
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