ELKVIEW, W.Va. — Kanawha County’s Elkview Middle School didn’t get the worst of the damage in the area, but will still need to fix up certain areas of the school in wake of last week’s flooding, according to assistant principal Jim Holston.
The school’s auditorium, which was redone at the end of the school year, will need to be completely redone again. The first floor of the school was flooded in the office and in the gymnasium.
“We didn’t get feet. We just got a few inches from what I’ve been told,” Holston said.
The school still needs to have the damage assessed before further steps can be taken, Holston said.
Inside the gymnasium Thursday were piles of clothes for flood victims. The entire floor was covered with trash bags of clothes. Holston said they had been collecting items throughout the week.
In the parking lot, several organizations were on hand to help with the flood relief effort.
“This has just kind of become the center for everything,” he said looking around at all the trucks.
“Frontier is giving away cleaning supplies. These two trucks back here have diapers, toilet paper, shower facilities are set up over here,” he pointed out.
Tide was also on hand with its Loads of Hope top loader washing machines that were set up on site.
Birk Grismere, Tide volunteer, told MetroNews they’ve been collecting clothes and doing loads of laundry since Monday.
“The first day we did about 85 (loads). I think we’re probably in the neighborhood of around 250 loads of laundry that we’ve done,” Grismere said.
Disaster kits are also available. Grismere said, sometimes, they’ll load their trucks up and visit impacted communities and set the kits on the doorsteps of homes or ask folks what they need.
Grismere said they will be moving their trucks from the Elkview Middle parking lot down to Greenbrier County — another area that was greatly impacted by the June 23rd flood.