RAINELLE, W.Va. — The one year anniversary and memorial service Friday in Rainelle was just as much about the four people lost in the June 23, 2016 floods as it was about those who are helping build Rainelle’s future.
One of those people is 70-year-old Shirley Lowther, who moved to Rainelle in 2005 to be closer to her sister. With the help of the Small Business Administration (SBA), she rebuilt her home following the devastation of last June’s floods.
“I’ve been in hurricanes, tornadoes — never seen anything like this water with this flood,” Rainelle native Shirley Lowther said.
That was, essentially, her welcome home to Rainelle. In the four years prior to the flood, Lowther had returned to Florida to take care of her ailing mother. When she passed away, Lowther moved back into her home in Rainelle. Two weeks later, she was the victim of a life-changing flood.
“It was five and a half feet in my house, and I lost everything,” she said.
Lowther was in her former Second Street home that fateful Thursday afternoon when she started feeling nervous. The water was closing in, and it had a muddy, murky quality. She called her neighbor, and they moved their cars onto Main Street. When they returned, Lowther said entering her home was no longer an option.
“By the time we walked back down the street to my house, he wouldn’t let me go near it because it was up to my waist,” she said. “The water was coming up so fast. When it came over the banks it just swelled, and it was rushing water.”
There was only one option left. Lowther boarded a bus headed for Ansted, fleeing the waters over Sewell Mountain.
“I did feel like a refugee — and worried about what it was going to be like when the water went down and what was going to be left,” she said.
Her four children live in Maryland, and their concerns were mounting. The floods were quickly becoming a national story, and they hadn’t heard from their mother. But, finally, she was able to speak with one of her daughters who had been intensely monitoring the Weather Channel.
“‘There’s pictures on the Weather Channel, and there’s a blue cars like yours and it’s full of water,'” Lowther said, now chuckling. “And I said, ‘Yes, that’s mine.’ And that’s how my kids found out.”
Lowther’s stay at Ansted Baptist Church wasn’t long — just two days. In that time, she saw the best in her fellow West Virginians.
“They brought clothes and water and food by the car load,” she said. “It was a revolving parking lot because the cars just kept coming. The people were wonderful. It felt like family.”
In the aftermath of the floods, Lowther came to a crossroads. Would she rebuild her home?
“I was scared,” Lowther said. “But, I loved my little house. And I loved it here, and I wanted to stay. So I hired a contractor. He rebuilt my house.”
She took out a 30-year mortgage from the SBA. Slowly, she said her peace of mind is starting to return. She couldn’t help but flash back to last June when heavy rains battered Greenbrier County several weeks prior.
“And I got a little nervous,” Lowther said. “But you know what? I can’t look back. I have to go forward. I just have to count on the fact that He left me here for a reason. So I have to keep going forward.”