WEBSTER SPRINGS, W.Va. — Many citizens of Webster County expressed to MetroNews Sunday that they believe the county needs to be added to the federal disaster list that includes Nicholas, Greenbrier, and Kanawha.
Webster County 911 Director Richard Rose said there is something that can help: reporting home damage to the County.
“Right now what we need folks to do is to report damages to us by calling our office here so we know where to take these people to actually look at the damages,” he said. “Hopefully that’ll be enough to convince the federal government to help our citizens out here in Webster County.”
FEMA teams conducting preliminary damage assessments will be in Webster County on Monday and Tuesday. Extensive damage in Camden-on-Gauley and in rural areas like Bergoo, Williams River, and Gauley River Road just outside of Webster Springs suffered enormous damage levels to homes, businesses, and other buildings.
As of Sunday afternoon, Rose had already received official reports of 25 homes destroyed in the floods and an additional 30 suffering extensive damage.
Sharon Hannah, a native of Camden-on-Gauley for nearly 46 years, said it was clear what her town needed: federal assistance.
“Some of these people have money, some resources, some family that’s able to help them,” she said. “But it’s many of them that have family and support but nobody in the family has any type of money in the family to help or anything like that.”
Homes in the town, which numbers fewer than 200 in population according to U.S. Census Data, suffered extensive damage from flood waters. With water levels finally receding, most families were in their homes Sunday throwing out the vast majority of what they once owned before gushing flood waters claimed their value.
“It was beautiful,” she said. “The people kept their lawns. They kept everything up. Their houses had flowers and flowers hanging on their porches. It was just gorgeous. It looked like any nice suburban neighborhood.”
Her description of what the tight-knit community looks like now differs slightly after the events of the previous 72 hours.
“There’s the things from the outbuildings all over the place,” she said. “There is mud about three inches deep–a slimy mud.”
Hannah said it could have been much worse though, describing a water rescue that occurred just down the hill from where she lives.
“Some people took a boat and went over the top of the [submerged] jeep and went in and got those people,” Hannah said.
Rose echoed that sentiment Sunday afternoon. While reports came in throughout the state of fatalities–standing pat at 24 presently–Webster County has so far made it through the flood without any loss of life.
“Far as we know everybody’s out of immediate danger,” he said. “Everybody’s accounted for. We have no reports of any missing people.”
Homes in Webster Springs suffered some light damage from water. The brunt of the damage in the county seat occurred at the town park at Baker’s Island, which destroyed a baseball field and caused massive damage to the park.
“A lot of people are comparing it to the flood of ’85, which was devastating to Webster Springs,” he said. “But this flood was a little different. It kind of spread out into the Elk River basin, the Gauley River basin and the Williams River basin, which effected a lot more people.”
The 1985 flood killed 38 people in West Virginia, destroyed thousands of homes and businesses, and destroyed or damaged 123 bridges.
Though Webster County was not included in the initial disaster declaration, it is expected to be added to that list following FEMA assessments early this week.
During Sunday’s special edition of MetroNews “Talkline with Hoppy Kercheval,” U.S. Senator Joe Manchin encouraged Webster County citizens to begin calling FEMA and registering for assistance. That number is 1-800-621-3362.