wfn.org | PCUSA - Sopping West Virginia gets more rain

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

31-July-2001
01255

PCUSA - Sopping West Virginia gets more rain

Helpless, fearful homeowners just stand and watch the river rise

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - West Virginians were literally forced to "head for the hills"
again over the weekend when heavy rains caused more flooding and triggered
mudslides in the southern part of the state for the third time in four
weeks.
	Before Sunday night, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
had estimated that recovery from back-to-back floods in West Virginia would
cost about $180 million - but authorities are revising the figure again.
	The flood waters hit several parts of Virginia and West Virginia
that were just about disinfected after massive flooding on July 8, which
killed two people and destroyed or damaged more than 5,500 houses.
	This weekend's floods also washed over some property that had been
unaffected until now.
	"If the water had gotten up to six or seven inches, we would have
had it again," said Joyce McKendree, of Mullens, W.Va., one of the
hardest-hit towns in the state. McKendree is a member of the First
Presbyterian Church in Mullens, which was badly damaged by flooding earlier
this month. "This is an ongoing battle now in Wyoming County."
	And a nerve-wracking battle.
	McKendree's husband, Bud, 70, spent about four hours Sunday evening
watching the Guyandotte River rise. McKendree herself had spent the day
bleaching the metal strips that will be used to install carpeting to
replace what the floodwaters ruined earlier this month, when the Guyandotte
rolled in her front door and out the back.
	She went door-to-door Sunday night, visiting her neighbors and
praying that no water would come in this time. She said some of the
neighbors were anointing their doors to hold back the water.
	Seventy-three-year-old Betty Phillips, also a Mullens Presbyterian,
is all too familiar with flood-induced anxiety. The first floor of her
two-story house was ruined on July 8, as was a building she and her
husband, Sonnie, rent downtown.
	"Oh, people are so tired," she said. "You just go day by day. Do a
little bit of what you can. We've at least got living quarters, good living
quarters upstairs, and a clean, fresh bed."
	But as the old saying goes, "There's no rest for the weary."
	Commissioned lay preacher Marge Booth - who lives in the manse of
the Marsh Fork Presbyterian Church in Dry Creek - is making room in her
home for the air mattresses and cots of church cleanup crews.
	The only thing she isn't sharing is her shower. A nearby school is
lending her shower facilities for the folks who are helping to clean up. So
far she has put up three groups. She said she's expecting about six more.
	"We've just had an enormous amount of rain," Booth said, noting
that the West Virginians who live in these hills suspect that heavy
timbering and strip mining have weakened the mountain's ability to stop
heavy rain from turning into fast-moving torrents. "It has become kind of a
never-ending cycle here now. Somebody said to me, 'I don't know what made
God so mad!'" she added with a half-laugh. "Of course, other places have
gotten rain, too.
	"But West Virginia has really gotten dumped on. The clouds just get
caught in these mountains."
	West Virginia Presbytery Exective Gay D. Mothershed told the
Presbyterian News Service that the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) was estimating last week that floods had destroyed 600 homes and
damaged at least 2,000, more than half of them seriously. The agency added
that more than 425 house trailers were ruined, about an equal number
sustained major damage, and 212 had minor damage.
	Mothershed said at least five Presbyterian churches are reporting
serious damage - Whittico Memorial in Keystone, First Church in Mullens,
the Colcord Presbyterian Church in Colcord and its neighbor, Clear Creek,
and Fellowship Presbyterian in Fayetteville.
The Rev. Phil Saunders, pastor of the Mullens church, said he can't guess
when the building will be useable again. Maybe Christmas, he says.
"We've got to wait until it dries out, the walls, the floors, the pews,"
he said. "Then comes the painting. We have to see if the legs of the pews
are damaged; I really hope we don't have to get new pews. We'll need new
carpeting in the sanctuary * and we can't do any of that until the building
dries out." He said the building has only partial electrical service to run
fans and dehumidifiers.
	Saunders, whose congregation now worships in a nearby Catholic
church - said that much of the cleanup at First Presbyterian has been done
by visiting work crews from other churches, most of them from West
Virginia. Other helpers have come from Virginia and Indiana, he said, and
many of his parishioners are still cleaning up at home.
	One elder's home was condemned.
	"People are just exhausted," said Saunders, whose mother points out
that he doesn't look so hot himself these days, with big circles under his
eyes. "The regular tasks of ministry, those don't stop. And then there's
the cleanup."
Some days, McKendree said, when she goes through her soggy possessions,
she tosses more than she keeps. She said she doesn't have the heart to
clear away all the mud. Her immediate tasks are installing a new furnace
and putting down new carpeting. When that's done, she said, she'll try to
sell or rent the place. But right now she's moving to higher ground.
	"I can't stay here and stay scared * not after this," she said.
"Nobody knows the anxiety this puts in you."
While Sunday night's flooding wasn't as severe as in early July, McKendree
said, a house slipped off its foundations on Lusk Avenue and slid down the
hill.
	Phillips has decided to stay put, but she's not without anxiety.
	"Last night we had a scare," she said, describing another period of
heavy rain. "It just rained all day, and the creek started rising again.
You get nervous, kind of panicky.  Last night, we just stood and watched
it."
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