CLENDENIN, West Virginia—Surrounded by muddy devastation, Cathy Light and her husband Chris thought it was “heaven sent” they had free burgers to munch on in a Clendenin parking lot on Saturday.
To their left, the roof of a Dairy Queen slumped to the pavement. Behind it, a trailer home was ripped from its foundation, with four concrete stairs all that remained in the ground. Occasional whiffs of rotten food wafted from a nearby grocery store that, not long ago, was filled with 5 feet of muck water.
Before they jumped in a rescue boat in Clendenin on Saturday, the Lights could only save their dog Odie and a TV that sat atop a bedroom dresser—the highest-up they stored anything in their house, really.
The heavy rains that pummeled West Virginia resulted in at least 24 deaths, leaving families homeless with the tearful realization that they’re starting from scratch.
“I don’t have anything,” said Cathy Light, as she ate the free meal provided by Grace Community Church. “Where do we go now?”
The scene in Clendenin, located in Kanawha County, wasn’t as deadly as in Rainelle. Sixteen people died in Greenbrier County, at least 15 of them in Ranielle. Greenbrier is the only county where Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s administration believes people remain missing. “It does not appear there are unaccounted-for people in other counties, but it’s still a somewhat fluid situation,” said Chris Stadelman, Tomblin’s chief of staff. Rainelle Mayor Andrea “Andy” Pendleton wept as she surveyed her town on Saturday.
“I weep for my people, I weep for the businesses,” she said.
About six buses full of people whose homes were either without power or too damaged to inhabit were evacuated. Some were taken initially to a fire department facility, but then it flooded so they were moved to an abandoned store. When that started to flood, buses took the evacuees to a church 40 miles away.
Search and rescue teams went house to house, marking those checked with a spray-painted “X.” Abandoned pets were taken to a shelter. A water department filtration system, built with a $2.6-million loan, was damaged, Pendleton said. Help came from multiple sources, including two search and rescue teams from Virginia. Six other deaths were reported in Kanawha, in addition to one each in Jackson and Ohio counties. About 500 people were stranded overnight in a shopping center when a bridge washed out, and dozens of other people had to be plucked off rooftops or rescued from their cars. A gravel access road was built to let them out.
On Saturday Tomblin was approved for a major federal disaster declaration to get help for Greenbrier and the two other counties hardest-hit by flooding. Tomblin’s office said he made an expedited verbal request on Saturday to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for individual assistance for Kanawha, Greenbrier and Nicholas counties. Individual assistance includes housing and crisis counseling.
Some of the heaviest rainfall was in Greenbrier County, where The Greenbrier luxury resort and golf course is nestled in the mountains. The Professional Golfer’s Association (PGA) Tour has canceled a tournament there from July 4 to 10 because the course is overrun by floodwaters.
“Canceling The Greenbrier Classic is certainly the most prudent course of action as our foremost concern is the well-being of those who are having to live through this tragic situation,” PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said in a news release on Saturday. “Our thoughts and prayers are with them.”
California wildfire
Lighter winds are helping firefighters make gains on a voracious and deadly wildfire in central California that has burned 150 homes and claimed two lives. The toll may rise.
Firefighters may have found human remains on Saturday when they began going through neighborhoods to count houses and mobile homes incinerated by the blaze. In an unrecognizable mobile home, they found what appears to be a set of human remains, but because they were so badly burned forensic investigators will have to determine whether they belonged to a person or animal, Kern County Sheriff Spokesman Ray Pruitt said.
The tally of burned homes rose from 80. Entire blocks were reduced to rubble, and at least 2,500 homes remained threatened.
Meanwhile, the winds that drove the fire through small southern Sierra Nevada communities eased by late afternoon, helping firefighters contain 10 percent of the blaze. “Our crews are feeling pretty good,” said Joe Reyes, an operations chief for the fire. “If the winds don’t act up drastically, we are hoping to make headway in the next 24 hours.”
About 1,700 firefighters battled the flames.
Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency, freeing up money and resources to fight the fire and to clean up in the aftermath. The Federal Emergency Management Agency also authorized the use of funds for firefighting efforts, fire officials said
Since it began on Thursday, the fire has swept through 36,810 acres—57-and-a-half square miles—of parched brush and timber. It moved so quickly that some residents barely had time to escape—and two didn’t. An elderly couple apparently was overcome by smoke as they tried to flee, county Sheriff Donny Youngblood said. Their bodies were found on Friday, but their names haven’t been released.
Image credits: AP/Steve Helber