The last person left homeless by April’s flash flood moved back into her refurbished home on Saturday, thanks to her own determination and a lot of help from her family, friends and neighbors.

“It was the most joyous day for me,” said Lorinda Kay. “There’s no place like home.”

Kay’s small two-bedroom house at the intersection of Glendale and Humphrey roads was directly in the path of the flood, caused when a beaver dam upstream broke apart.

When the dam gave way, there was an estimated 40-acre-feet of water behind it, the equivalent of a 20-acre body of water two feet deep.

A rapidly rising Glendale Creek wiped out a 20-foot-deep section of Glendale Road about 100 feet wide, and the culvert beneath it, and sent a wall of water, mud and debris rushing a mile down the canyon into the tiny beach community.

“I’m at the bottom of both hills, where all the water and mud wanted to be,” Kay said. “Mud totally surrounded the house, and packed solid underneath it. It broke the plumbing, electricals, everything.”

“Mud came into the house,” she added. “It came in the living room, bedroom, dining room. It came in the bathroom and popped the toilet up off the floor.”

Eight homes, the Glendale Hotel and the old Ford Garage were damaged by the flash flood. Residents had been evacuated hours earlier, and there were no reported injuries.

But private property structural damage was estimated at more than $2.1 million, the bulk of it sustained by Kay’s house, the hotel and the garage, Island County officials said.

The county incurred the loss of $2 million worth of roadway, and spent another $60,000 in assisting Glendale residents with the cleanup.

Jason Marr, owner of the hotel and garage, said Monday that power has finally been restored to the hotel, and that he will move ahead to determine what needs to be done to make it habitable.

Meanwhile, yards of sand, dirt and debris remain on both of his properties, Marr said.

“It’s been a slow process,” he said.

Kay, 60, office manager at The Record, has lived in her house for 22 years. Her daughter, Darcy, 20, was away at Evergreen State College in Olympia when the disaster hit.

The house was uninhabitable after the flood. But Kay wasn’t alone. Friends Cristi Ruscigno and Claudia Fuller in Clinton shared their homes with her for weeks. Other friends stored her salvaged belongings in their barn.

Friends and neighbors, along with Kay’s son Aaron, 31, of Lynnwood, his friends, and a hired crew helped Kay dig her house out of the mud. They removed more than 40 yards of gunk from underneath.

Members of the community nonprofit organization Hearts & Hammers, of which Kay is a member, spent two separate days replacing the skirting, floors and drywall, and painting. “They even found a new toilet,” Kay said.

A carpenter neighbor built a small deck, replaced flooring and located some new doors. Others planted a small garden in front of the house. Another neighbor provided food for the workers.

“They got me over the hurdle. It was an incredible lift,” she said.

Saturday, friends and coworkers helped Kay move back in.

“It’s better than it ever was,” she said. “It almost felt like moving into a new house.”

Kay said she has no hard feelings about beavers, but she has strong opinions about culverts. She said the old culvert under Glendale Road had been way too small.

The county is studying its options for the damaged section of the road. So far, those options include a new roadway and larger culvert, a bridge, or just leaving it the way it is — a big gap in the road.

Kay prefers the latter.

“It’s inconvenient, but the stream needs to be as open as possible,” she said. “Now the fish can migrate all the way up. It’s good for the salmon.”

Kay thanked all those who donated to a Glendale Relief Fund set up at Whidbey Island Bank to help flood victims. Contributions came from the Chiropractic Zone in Freeland, Whidbey Telecom and numerous individuals, she said.

But she especially thanked members of the South Whidbey community for all the help and kindness she received.

“What would have been a disaster turned into a blessing,” she said. “Living in this community helps you to bear anything.”