CLENDENIN, W.Va. — Regardless of where you go in the Clendenin area, the stories all seem to be the same.
“It came up real quick and by the time I got my mom out of the trailer, I had to float her off the porch up to higher ground,” said Kevin Wallace who lives on Spencer Road, connecting I-79 to the town of Clendenin.
Spencer Road is a tragic stretch of highway where nearly every building was inundated with water. Outside the Liberty Christian Ministries Church, the entire seating of the sanctuary has been reset in the yard, covered in mud.
“We got water almost up to the ceiling. Pretty much everything was wiped out all of our musical instruments and electronic equipment, it’s gone,” said Pastor Mel Kerr. “We’ve got the walls and we’ve got a floor.”
Kerr was shocked at the force of the current once the water was actually inside the building.
“In the sanctuary we had a 12 inch high platform and it raised it up off the floor and set it on top of a chair,” Kerr said. “Don’t ask me how that happened, but that’s the kind of force we had in here.”
The center of Clendenin is also a disaster zone. Volunteers hauled load after load of soaked debris from the Clendenin Christian Advent Church, piling everything along the street to be hauled away. Next door, crews used a small front end loader to push mud out of the Speedway convenience Store. The Dairy Queen which only a week ago was a hub for cool summer treats is now destroyed.
Ed Weaver lives on a back street, well away from the creek or the Elk River. His home wasn’t spared.
“I saw the water coming up and took my vehicle to higher ground,” he said, “I put my chest waders on and carried as much as I could to higher ground, making three or four passes.”
He, like many, now faces the grim reality of whether to build back.
“That’s still up in the air. My sister lives down in Virginia and has been wanting me to come down there and be closer to her,” he explained. “If I’m going that far, I may not stop. I may just keep on going until I get to the beach. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to the beach.”