wfn.org | Clean-up Begins as Ohio River Finally Recedes

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

12-March-1997 
97124 
 
          Clean-up Begins as Ohio River Finally Recedes 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.-- Few Presbyterian churches reportedly have been hit by 
Ohio River floodwaters that saturated four states, causing property damage 
expected to total hundreds of millions of dollars. 
 
     Close to 30 people have died in weeklong flooding along the path of 
the Ohio through West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. The river 
crested March 7 in Louisville and didn't begin to recede until a week later 
along stretches of the river that run through Western Kentucky and Memphis 
Presbyteries. 
 
     The impact of the flood -- the worst in more than 30 years along the 
Ohio -- has been felt in presbyteries all along that stretch, as 
Presbyterians began cleaning up -- turning soggy fellowship halls into 
relief centers, collecting special offerings and forming 
squeegee-and-bleach brigades to disinfect homes and businesses. 
 
     "Now we're flooded with bleach," said the Rev. Kevin Murphy of the 
Cranston Memorial Presbyterian Church in New Richmond, Ohio, just 20 miles 
upriver from Cincinnati, who was interviewed by the Presbyterian News 
Service March 11.  He tucked the telephone receiver under his chin in order 
to holler over the sound of dump trucks hauling away debris to people 
getting clean-up kits in the next room: " Don't drink your water.  There's 
some drinking water back there.  Bleach?  Take as much as you want. ...' 
 
     "As soon as we got our own house halfway in order, we started being a 
church again," he said, returning to the phone. A crew of eight squeegeed 
and pressure-washed three feet of silted river water out of Cranston 
Memorial's sanctuary walls and flooring.  Now, Murphy said, "we're serving 
as a distribution center.  The fact is we're right in the center of the 
worst part of the destruction. 
 
     "We've been here for 150 years," he said, adding that the congregation 
is probably looking at $1,500 to 5,000 in repairs to the church building -- 
not as bad as the wreckage to New Richmond itself. "People are still kind 
of in shock.  They're just doing it.  Dragging things out.  The streets are 
still caked with mud where they haven't been cleaned yet.  "And there are 
piles and piles of junk on the curbs." 
 
     That's a scene that is familiar to Elder John Hamilton of Worthington 
(Ohio) Presbyterian Church in Scioto Valley Presbytery.  He was part of a 
church crew that helped pressure-wash and bleach flooded homes in Vinton, 
Ohio, after the Raccoon Creek gushed more than three feet of water over 
Route 160.   
 
     "Seeing these people trying to pick and choose what to keep, what to 
throw.  Seeing people realize what they do not want to throw, they're not 
able to keep. ... It's a heartrending thing," said Hamilton. 
 
     He paused.  "It's not mud.  It's silt.  It's just like bearing grease 
-- slick.  And the carpet -- whether it was blue or red -- regardless, it's 
all brown," said Hamilton, describing homes that took anywhere from two to 
six feet of water in the Vinton area.  "Water flows quiet.  And it came on 
early in the morning when people didn't realize it.  Some woke up with 
water up to the mattress and didn't know it." 
 
     According to Stan Hankins of Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, $10,000 
in One Great Hour of Sharing funds were released this week to both Scioto 
Valley Presbytery and the Synod of the Covenant. One Great Hour of Sharing 
money also is being used in Louisville Presbytery. 
 
     Much of the money is funneled through state and regional ecumenical 
disaster teams. 
 
     "It's a little bit early to get exact numbers," said Hankins when 
questioned about damage estimates to date.  "We've got the crest moving 
through Evansville [Ind.] and on south as we speak. 
 
     "[So far,] we're relatively unscathed in terms of churches." 
 
     But normal work schedules are just resuming at the Presbyterian Center 
in Louisville after business was suspended March 6-7 when the first floor 
of the primary parking garage used by denominational staff buckled, 
presumably because of pressure from rising groundwater.  The riverside wall 
of the garage, across the street from the Presbyterian Center, is part of 
Louisville's floodwall system.  Staff members were being shuttled to work 
from other parking sites pending repair of the Witherspoon Street parking 
garage, though at press time parking on the structure's second and third 
floors had resumed. 
 
     Approximately 25 staff members suffered varying degrees of property 
damage in recent flooding, with several reporting extensive losses. 
 
     "We've all learned more about floods in the past 10 days than we 
wanted to know," said Cincinnati Presbytery executive presbyter the Rev. 
Sam Roberson, noting that about 10 of the presbytery's churches are serving 
as drop-off sites for clean-up kits, boots and baby clothes.   He said 
several of the presbytery's pastors are pastoral care volunteers in 
Falmouth, Ky., a small town that was so rapidly inundated by water that 
some residents are still missing.  "Cincinnati itself was just clipped by 
the rain. ... We didn't get all that much rain, but we got the high water. 
 
     "It's amazing driving across the bridges.  Ordinarily, you look way 
down to see the river.  But the river's right there," he said.  Noting that 
the  presbytery has been preparing for the past nine months for it's March 
11 vote on Amendment B, he added,  "But [now] there's going to be as much 
focus in that meeting on how churches [are facing] the tragedy among us. 
 
     "It puts it in perspective." 
 
     The Rev. Dana Sutton of Bates Memorial Presbyterian Church in 
Huntington, W.Va., said his end of West Virginia Presbytery  was right in 
the path of the heavy rain and the high water, but the city's floodwall 
kept the river back, with the exception of a few side streets.  Several 
members of Bates Memorial were stranded for a few days in a suburban 
housing development, he said.  
       
     But Huntington residents have been pulling together to get help to 
nearby communities that were hard hit, such as the neighboring towns of 
Milton and Point Pleasant.  "A lot of the rain came at night. The water 
just came up so fast, and soon the Ohio got high. 
 
     "Then everything else backed up," he said, naming the Guyandotte and 
Mud rivers. 
      
     Sutton said members of the congregation took up a special offering 
during the March 9 worship and are collecting cleaning supplies that will 
be distributed through a local ecumenical organization. 
 
     "We're trying very hard to position ourselves ... to be helpful when 
the water goes down," said Roberson of the next few weeks and months.  "Our 
folks are out there on the front lines.  And there were deep prayers in 
churches all over the presbytery yesterday [March 9].  Sometimes prayers 
come from the heart and soul and sometimes they're just said. 
 
     "These prayers came from the heart and soul." 
 
     At press time, Cranston Memorial Presbyterian Church and Manchester 
Presbyterian Church in Manchester, Ohio, were reporting water damage.  The 
Manchester church basement took in three feet of water, according to the 
Rev. Ellis Davis of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Team, damaging its 
kitchen facilities, a bathroom and meeting rooms. 

------------
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 

--