Nine-year-old Dillon Rucker reached up high in his father's Clendenin, W.Va., home.
He could barely touch the mud-stained line on the wall.
“This is the water line,” Dillon says. “We went through the windows and kept going to the cemetery.”
Dillon, his father, James Hammack, and a few friends spent the night June 23 in a cemetery built on top of a hill. Below them, floodwaters surged into their town.
The Hammacks returned to their house Thursday, a week after a storm dumped up to nine inches of rain across parts of central West Virginia, swelling the Elk River to nearly 30 feet above its normal flow.
They've slept on their porch since the flood. Dillon lost his new Xbox and other toys. His father had to tear his son's art projects and awards from the water-damaged walls.
“He's done real good this year,” Hammack said, pausing as he held one of Dillon's projects titled, “My Dream for My Future.”
“I'm sure this wasn't it.”
Cleanup and recovery efforts continue a week after flash floods killed 23 and devastated river towns across central West Virginia. An initial assessment by state emergency officials estimates that throughout the affected areas, 1,500 homes were destroyed, 4,000 suffered damage and about 125 businesses were destroyed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency declared disasters in 10 counties.
Clendenin's only funeral home, nearly destroyed by the flood, served as a temporary morgue for the six killed in Kanawha County until funeral homes in other neighboring communities could make arrangements, said the town's fire chief, Kevin Clendenin. Memorial services took place this past week, many in churches that were still cleaning up.
The chief estimates the flood damaged about 500 homes and buildings in the town of about 1,200 people. About 200 structures are irreparably damaged or destroyed.
He hopes the Dairy Queen, which collapsed in the flood, will be rebuilt. It has been part of the town since the 1950s.
“Every kid that played a baseball game in the town of Clendenin went to Dairy Queen after the game,” the fire chief said.
But Clendenin wonders whether the town's Little League of a couple hundred kids will survive. Its field, locker room and facilities were destroyed. The kids might not come back if their families rebuild elsewhere, the chief said.
Clendenin's K-5 grade school of about 500 is bracing to lose about half its enrollment this fall, he said.
“I think it will be a long time,” Clendenin said of the town's recovery. “We're just kind of propping people up right now.”
People in towns along the Elk River are starting to get back electricity, gas, water and other utilities. The West Virginia National Guard has more than 600 troops deployed in flood-affected areas of the state, said Melissa Shade, a public affairs officer. Community Assessment Teams go door-to-door to find out what families need and help them apply for federal aid.
National Guard cleanup teams are working hard to remove debris from the river. Rain, possibly another 2 inches, is in the forecast for Monday, and Shade said she worries the debris will clog the river and cause additional flooding.
That's the last thing the area needs.
“You're faced with not inches but feet of just packed mud,” Shade said. “There are some houses that have swimming pools that are just brown.”
Help has come from all over.
State and federal resources have arrived, and so have volunteers from churches, companies and elsewhere. Within hours of roads reopening a week ago, volunteers had set up aid stations and were serving hot meals.
“If you can hand a man a hot cup of coffee and a sandwich,” Clendenin said, “that's a first step to getting back to normal.”
Aaron Aupperlee is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Nate Smallwood is a Tribune-Review photographer.
