CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The American Red Cross has set up a shelter at Capital High School in Charleston to aid those who lost their homes in last week’s flooding in Kanawha County.
Facility director Don Pelich said the need has been great after the flooding devastated the Clendenin area, and the shelter has filled up.
“We’ve been kind of growing. I thought we reached a peak but we’ve added some more people today,” he said. “We probably have registered somewhere around 90 to 95 people in the shelter.”
John Knicely, a Clendenin resident who lost his home, was grateful for the services of the Red Cross.
“This is wonderful. They feed you well, they see if you have any medical needs,” he said. “When I came in, I had surgery on my foot and it was muddy and nasty. They took me straight to the hospital.”
Prelich said that how long the facility could continue to operate largely depends on FEMA.
“FEMA’s the people that get these people located somewhere else, so we just kind of keep doing our thing until they can find places for those people.”
He said people had been very generous in wanting to help donate to the facility, but there is a limit on what they’re allowed to accept.
“Right now if I were to say I need something, I would love to have a microwave just to heat up some things if somebody is looking for a bite to eat and we have some leftovers,” Prelich said. “For the most part, we can’t take too much in the way of donations.”
Knicely wasn’t sure about his future plans and whether he would return to the Clendenin area.
“Depends on what they do with the house and whether we get enough money to go somewhere else. I doubt we ever buy another house.”
Six people lost their lives in the Clendenin area in last week’s flooding.