RICHWOOD, W.Va. (AP) - Addie Jackson remembers her fear the most - fear of dying, of drowning in a swirling torrent of brown water.
“I’ve never been so afraid in my life,” she said eight months after flooding ravaged parts of this eastern Nicholas County city. “I thought I was going to get swept way, but I got a hold of a pole and held on for my life.”
Jackson was working her shift as a clerk at Rite Aid when water from the Cherry River started to trickle in, then it came in faster and faster. Within minutes, she recalled recently, there was 4 feet of water inside the store.
“All I remember after that was the big gush,” she said. “The next thing I remember is staying at the (Richwood Volunteer) fire station.”
It’s been eight months since heavy rain battered much of West Virginia with as much as 10 inches of rain falling on June 23. Water poured out of creeks and rivers, prompting scores of rescue calls and stories of death and loss. Richwood suffered heavy losses from its high and middle schools to its business district. Now, the town is in the midst of rebuilding.
Inside the city’s library, things appeared normal recently. A couple of people were using the computer, the resident cat was curled up in a ball. But in late June, the single-story building looked anything but normal.
Karen Workman, a librarian, remembers pushing furniture back as water sped through the library’s rear doors. “Our saving grace was the vents,” she said.
The water went into the vents and under the flooring. When the worst was over, the library suffered minimal damage - a ruined floor and inoperable bathrooms.
“None of the books were damaged,” she said. “And we were open in a very short time.”
Since the flooding, the library has new flooring and bathrooms, she said.
Paul Wood, owner of Paul’s Transmission and Engine Repairs, recalls finding his expensive tools ruined or lost when about 5 feet of water entered his business.
“I don’t want to think of how much I lost,” he said, before citing $3,900 for a new tire balance machine, $2,000 for an air compressor and another two grand on air tools.
Across the alley from his shop sat the former house of Junior and Betty Marlowe, an elderly couple who spent the night of June 23 praying in their attic as the water rapidly filled their modest home.
The neighborhood is filled with homes that still have strange red markings painted on the exterior, messages reading N24 and N26.
Where the former Richwood Area Community Hospital once stood, seven men from the Appalachian Service Project were pouring concrete into freshly dug footers for 10 new homes. Zeb Volpe, the construction superintendent, said the homes are being built 3 feet above basic flood elevation. The homes are 874 square feet with two bedrooms and a single bathroom.
Across the city of 2,000, Feb. 21 was a day that will be remembered for some time. It was the day city leaders received a check for $2.3 million to continue to rebuild.
Flanked by bankers, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito handed the check to Mayor Bob Henry Baber and former mayor Jeromy Rose.
“What we’ve been through in the last eight months I would not wish upon anyone,” Rose said.
The former mayor played a short video he recorded from the town’s fire tower of its downtown area just hours after the flooding. The rushing water was eerie, sounding like television static.
Current Mayor Baber got emotional while telling of Richwood uniting to rebuild just days after the flooding.
“You want to see Richwood? The Richwood Lumberjack Express fished their uniforms out of the mud. Had them dry cleaned and then they marched up the street during our Cherry River Festival to the tears of joy,” he said.
Currently, the city is in a legal fight to keep its high and middle schools in Richwood, instead of consolidating five county high schools, as recommended by the Nicholas County Schools Superintendent.
One person impressed by the outpouring of support is Cindy Arbaugh, the mother of a deaf daughter.
During the flooding, the community ensured the daughter had the needed supplies to survive, she said.
“Our community is …” she said, breaking into emotions. “I don’t know how to explain it. You have to live here to understand it.”
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Information from: The Register-Herald, https://www.register-herald.com
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