WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — A year after last June’s historic flood White Sulphur Springs resident Teresa Lowe says she’s still asking herself, ‘What if?’
Lowe recounted her story on Friday’s MetroNews “Talkline” just hours before the one-year mark of the fight of her life.
When the rain didn’t let up in White Sulphur Springs on June 23, 2016, Lowe headed to the residence of her pregnant daughter. Once there, she decided to move a vehicle belonging to her daughter’s father. While looking for a place to park she was overcome by a raging Howard’s Creek. She blew the horn and yelled for help.
Moments later, two men with a rope pulled her out of the vehicle, the water now up to her waist. The trio made it to a nearby tree, Lowe remembered Friday.
“We held onto the tree as hard as we could. It was literally like somebody had opened up a gate to a dam. The water was flowing so hard and so fast. We were holding on for all that we had,” Lowe said.
She was never able to climb the tree like the men were. So they held her and the rope. Lowe said the water went over her head several times before a debris pile stacked against the tree and helped her stay above the water. More than four hours later Lowe heard an engine, she said.
“(A man) had saw an opportunity and he hot-wired a bulldozer and started rescuing people and we happened to be the first people that he rescued,” she said.
Lowe was hospitalized for six days, two nights in intensive care.
Since the flood, volunteers built Lowe’s daughter a new home. Lowe’s granddaughter was born on her birthday and amazingly two personal belongings were found next to the tree where Lowe and her two lifesavers clung for survival.
“One day my daughter was down there when they were pulling the truck out of the middle of Howard’s Creek, because it was buried with creek gravel and they couldn’t get out for days, she saw something shiny and she found my Pandora’s bracelet and my watch underneath the tree. The watch was still running,” Lowe said.
Despite all of her blessings, Lowe said she still deals with some regret because five people just a half-mile down the road didn’t survive the flood.
“We’ve been very blessed. We’re very thankful but it doesn’t make it any easier. I have to tell myself that every day because I have to think ‘What if?’ every day,” she said.