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Explosion victims are still struggling emotionally
By: Taylor Pool
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An Athens County Couple have still not received a settlement for their property that was destroyed in an explosion last November.
John and Cathy Sayers are still waiting to accept an offer from Tennessee Gas after a pipeline exploded behind their Glouster house.
The couple has not had their own home for five months.
Though Tennessee Gas has given the Sayers' several offers, John said none has been to his liking.
"We're not going to accept an offer that they've tendered for forty years of my life, I'm not doing it," John said.
John says the gas company is forgetting what he calls the "human factor."
"It was a near death experience for her and I guess that doesn't mean anything," he said. "If someone would have died they probably would have been stepping and fetching."
Kathy survived the explosion and fire but emotionally she is struggling.
"It's very hard, but we'll make it wherever we end up." she said.
Not only did the Sayers lose their house in the explosion, but they will also lose their property including a pond they built over twenty years ago because the land has been deemed unbuildable.
While the Sayers' have been waiting to put this catastrophe behind them, they say they can't help wonder why they weren't warned of the potential danger.
John says two pipeline ruptures on the same pipe had occurred before the explosion behind his home.
He says he wonders why residents living near the 200-4 pipeline hadn't been told.
"You would know what to expect," he said. "We didn't know that was the same pipeline."