HUNDRED, W.Va. — Residents of Hundred are still assessing the damage to their homes and businesses following devastating floods that hit the community this weekend.
Bob McNeely lives along Stewart Street, where the rivers of Church Fork and West Virginia Fork Fish Creek meet. Though his grandfather told stories of a flood at the home in the 1940s, McNeely said it didn’t compare to what he witnessed this weekend.
Friday night’s floods brought four feet of water in the basement of McNeely’s home and six feet of water in his shop that sits on property behind the house.
“I lost about everything in the basement,” he said. “I lost the backside of my garage here, and I’m sure my hot water tank and furnace.”
Though cleanup and repair will require significant labor, McNeely said he didn’t lose anything that is irreplaceable.
“A lot of this was immaterial, really,” he said. “I mean, I was lucky, really. As far as upstairs, I never lost electric.”
However, McNeely said he still doesn’t know how bad the damage in his shop will be.
“The motors and stuff on the machines is up high,” he said. “We’re just getting stuff hosed out and hoping. The welders were all underwater, so we’ll probably lose them.”
Shirley Rouche has lived in Hundred for more than 70 years and doesn’t recall a single storm that caused as much damage to her hometown.
“I kept getting up and looking, and I noticed the water was coming up on my car,” she said. “I walked out the next time to look, and it was up to the windows. It went back down, but in about 15 to 20 minutes, my car was drowned.”
Rouche said she was fortunate to live on a hill and not lose any belongings inside of her home.
Chuck Cumberledge, owner of Hundred Feed Store and a landlord of several rentals in town, said the flood wreaked havoc on his properties.
“It’s been terrible. In one of the buildings over on Main Street, it was 62 inches,” he said. “There’s a whole building being condemned.”
Despite the long road to recovery that lies ahead, Cumberledge is optimistic that Hundred will recover.
“Everybody’s helping and will get back on their feet,” he said.