wfn.org | West Virginians Clean up after Second Major Flood of the Year

[PCUSA_NEWS@ecunet.org]

May 29, 1996 
 
 
96210      West Virginians Clean up after Second Major  
                        Flood of the Year 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--With people still cleaning up from January's floods, towns 
and isolated homes along West Virginia's major rivers got flooded again May 
17 when the Ohio, Kanawha, Greenbrier and Tygart Valley Rivers all 
overflowed their banks. 
 
     This time, 17 of West Virginia's 55 counties were declared federal 
disaster areas -- half of them for the second time since January, according 
to the Rev. Richard L. Krajeski of the First Presbyterian Church in 
Mannington, W.Va., and a Church World Service (CWS) disaster relief 
consultant. 
 
     CWS is the relief arm of the National Council of Churches, based in 
New York City.  
 
     "This means people have to go through it again," Krajeski told the 
Presbyterian News Service, "and that gets really, really difficult. ... 
 
     "West Virginia's had three or four 100-year floods in the past few 
months," he said, meaning there's about one chance every 100 years of a 
flood that size in the state, where unemployment is already swelling, 
family resources are already stretched and people already living on fixed 
incomes are unable to keep up flood insurance payments of $500-1,000 each 
year.  "But it's an invisible disaster.  The media seems to prefer things 
that go bang and smoke." 
 
     Krajeski said that an estimated 8,000-9,000 homes were affected by May 
floods -- more than 1,000 of them already heavily damaged by January flash 
floods caused by heavy snows and rain. Literally "hundreds" of bridges are 
washed out or damaged, Krajeski said, stranding some families in isolated 
areas. 
 
     "People weep when the heavy rains come," said West Virginia Presbytery 
executive the Rev.  W. Wilson "Brad" Bradburn of Charleston, stressing that 
some families are saddled with impossible-to-sell property that is 
repeatedly saturated by rain and swept away by fast water in the state's 
narrow valleys.  "And they wonder,  Am I going to have to live through this 
again?'  Pastors are helping people cope with that ... and with the 
frustration of limited resources. 
 
     "You can't build a dam on your own." 
 
     But in Parsons -- where the Black Fork, Dry Fork, Shaver Fork, 
Blackwater and Cheat Rivers converge in north-central West Virginia -- some 
of the 1,700 residents are threatening to do just that. "People are just 
terribly, terribly frustrated," said Elder Mariwyn Smith, editor of the 
"Parsons Advocate" and member of the Parsons Presbyterian Church, who said 
residents met with legislators there last week to demand assistance.  "They 
can't seem to get help to get the river dredged or to get dykes built to 
protect the town. ... People say they can't live through another year or 
two of studies [to lengthen one of the town's two flood walls]. 
 
     "They're threatening to get in the river," she said, citing increased 
tension since January's flooding cost Parsons 135 jobs when its flagging 
shoe factory flooded and closed.  May flooding, she said, caused at least 
80 people to evacuate their homes.  The Presbyterian Church fellowship 
hall, kitchen and Sunday school rooms -- which flooded in January -- were 
spared flooding this time only because an elder duct-taped plastic around 
the doors, holding water back from the sanctuary. 
 
     In 1985, the then-new sanctuary in Parsons was destroyed by 
now-legendary flooding caused by the remnants of a hurricane that also 
destroyed 3,500 homes and 180 businesses across the state and killed 47 
people.  "People say the  85 flood rearranged the level of the riverbed," 
said the Rev. Ellen Thomas of the Parsons church.  "They say the landscape 
has really changed." 
 
     The Rev. David Bower of Beverly Presbyterian Church in Randolph County 
-- whose office furniture is stacked in his living room to avoid the water 
that has taken over the manse basement -- concurs with that assessment.  He 
said none of West Virginia's well-rooted residents remembers such a close 
streak of floods before.  "Everybody's doing what they can to help one 
another ... [while] wondering,  How are we gonna dig out one more time? 
When's it gonna come next?' 
 
     "It means a lot of uncertainty.  And in this household some sleepless 
nights," Bower said, pointing out that flood stress is cumulative. 
"There's major damage to important roads; there's increased commuting time. 
Driving is more hazardous, so you have to change schedules and plans. 
That's more stress. ... 
 
     "There is a flash-flood watch all day today [May 29]." 
 
     The Philippi Presbyterian Church is estimating $5,000-6,000 damage to 
its fellowship hall, kitchen and nursery this time, according to its 
pastor, the Rev. Larry Bowald, who has been serving in Philippi and its 
neighboring town, Belington, for nearly three years.  The water stopped 
this time six inches short of the church's first floor -- and about two 
inches from the sanctuary entrance.  "We're cleaning up," he said.  "It's 
discouraging, but not overwhelming. 
 
     "People clean up and go," he said, adding that the sanctuary flooded 
in 1985 and the church basement in 1994. 
 
     Further east in rural Pendleton County -- along the north fork of the 
South Branch of the Potomac -- Jane Williams of the Circleville 
Presbyterian Church is looking at a lot of cleanup in her hay fields. 
"We're farmers," she said, "and we're going to be moving dirt ... rocks, 
limbs, debris. ... [This flood] washed most of the topsoil on down the 
river. 
 
     "The local comment here in January was: If  85 didn't get you, this 
one did." 
 
     Bradburn said flood stories are becoming too common -- but few West 
Virginians are ready to pack up and leave.  "There was real devastation in 
January. And there was a serious repeat this month. People don't recover 
that fast emotionally," he said, emphasizing both the very real stress in 
West Virginia and the love people have for their land.  "People are very 
rooted here. 
 
     "If you're [here] on a sunny day in the spring or fall and you see 
these beautiful sites, you see why people love it so much. ... [That's why] 
sometimes they're willing to risk, to gamble that the waters aren't going 
to hurt them. They think, Maybe the water will come up again sometime. ..." 
Bradburn said, pausing. 
 
     "Or they think, Maybe I'll be lucky next time."  
      
     Church World Service has issued a $10,000 appeal for West Virginia 
flooding to supply blankets, health kits, water purification tablets and 
emergency funds.  Aid will be dispensed through the West Virginia Council 
of Churches.  The Presbyterian World Service account number to use when 
sending a donation is #9-2000125 (Northeast U.S. Flood Relief). 

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For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

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