Woman kayaks to floating home swept away by flood to recover mother's ashes

SANFORD, MI -- When the massive flooding overtook mid-Michigan earlier this week, Kathy Parsch was the last person to evacuate the village of Sanford.

Nearly 11,000 mid-Michigan residents were forced to evacuate their homes due to a massive flooding emergency triggered by dam failures on Tuesday.

Now Parsch and her friends are looking for her home in Sanford after it was swept away by the floods. When they first returned to the home’s location, they discovered only the foundation remained.

Then they saw the house -- floating in the middle of the river.

Parsch and her friends found kayaks laying around and got into the water. The Sanford woman was on a mission to recover her mother’s ashes that were left inside the home when she evacuated.

“I think she wanted to go down with the ship," Parsch said of her mother. "She wanted to stay with my house, I think.”

Parsch says she’s overwhelmed by how the people of Sanford are helping her amid this crisis, providing her food and clothes, and now helping her find her home.

“This town is amazing," Parsch said.