Feb 19, 2018 3 min read

Residents were forced to leave their homes on Profio Road in Cecil Township after recent rainstorms caused the land where their mobile homes sit to slide.

Michelle Longstreth of 26 Profio Road and her two sons, Blain Longstreth Jr., 22, and Cody Jones, 18, spent the past two days packing up their home.

“We have no money, no help and less than 24 hours to get out,” she said Monday. “It’s a big nightmare.”

Longstreth said she noticed the land slipping Saturday after all the rain that had fallen the previous couple of days. On Sunday evening, she said she got a call from the land owner, Jeff Omatick, who told her she had to be out by this afternoon.

“I just burst into tears,” Longstreth said.

Longstreth said she’s lived in the mobile home, which she owns, for the past 20 years. She said her late husband, Blain Longstreth Sr., who died four years ago, bought it for her when she was 18 as a starter home for them.

“It’s like this was the last thing I had of him,” she said. “It was home. There’s a lot of memories here.”

Longstreth said they’ve had issues with the land sliding since 2004, but she said it “hadn’t slid in a while.”

She said Omatick gave her a 3 p.m. deadline today to get her things out of her home, because it would be condemned.

Omatick could not be reached for comment Monday.

According to Cecil Township Manager Donald Gennuso, the township is the only entity able to condemn the property.

He said it hadn’t done so yet because Omatick advised the township Monday morning he was working to get the residents out of the nine mobile homes that appear to be in danger on Profio Road.

“There was no condemnation,” Gennuso said. “The property owner had asked those residents to leave.”

Longstreth said township representatives visited her property Monday and confirmed that she should leave. Gennuso said the township did not tell anyone to leave and that local officials were on the property only to get photos. He also said Omatick told him that the residents were leaving voluntarily.

Longstreth said her father paid for her, her sons and their dogs to stay at a hotel for two days. She said she and her sons had $13 to last them until Thursday. Longstreth said she reached out to the Red Cross and Washington City Mission, but she said they could not offer assistance unless the property was condemned.

Her family plans to move to Georgia, where her son has an educational opportunity at the University of Georgia. They don’t yet have a place to stay there but hope to be on the road by Thursday.

Other residents seen moving out Monday declined to comment.