WELCH, W.Va. — Residents across downtown Welch all have unique stories to tell about the damage their streets, neighborhoods, and homes have sustained from the devastating weekend flooding, but there is a general consensus. This flood is the worst the area has ever seen.
For decades, the bar for judging floods in the area was the Great Flood of 1977 when the Tug Fork broke a record crest in many southern towns such as Williamson and Kermit. For Welch, it was a record crest over the weekend, though the period of record in the town began after 1977.
According to Brad Davis, who pastors Welch United Methodist Charge, the damage seems to be worse than 1977.
“It’s catastrophic damage,” Davis said. “The measuring stick here in Welch has always been 1977. I’m not a native of here, I wasn’t here in 1977, but everybody that I have talked to thinks that this one is worse.”
Davis, who was on his way to a mobile health clinic when MetroNews caught up with him, says his community in Welch isn’t the only one in McDowell County with overwhelming damage.
“It spans the entire county,” Davis said. “The southern end of the county, War, Coalwood and Bradshaw, Yeager, they got hit hard too. It’s a whole countywide thing.”
North of five inches of rain fell in parts of McDowell County over the weekend, and according to Governor Patrick Morrisey, over 60 high water rescues had to be performed statewide.
Unfortunately, McDowell County residents are no stranger to devastating flooding in the 21st century either. Thousands of structures were impacted, and hundreds of homes and businesses were destroyed from two floods that hit the county in 2001 and 2002.
Resident Jamie Sturgell, who was shoveling mud out of the Welch Post Office entrance when MetroNews spoke with her, said fellow residents had just recently bounced back from the early 2000’s flooding.
“It’s heartbreaking because we thought we were okay,” Sturgell said as she was fighting back tears. “Everybody pulled together and got to our new normal and now – I hate it.”
Sturgell testified that she walked through knee-high water to reach her mother’s home on Saturday night.
“It was completely surrounded. Her propane tank was floating and pulling and all I could do was go in and cut everything off and cover her up,” Sturgel said. “When I came back at midnight, it had went down to the back side of her house.”
Resident Tabitha Stout, a Head Start teacher, says her basement was flooded to the ceiling, and she also lost her gas furnace and water heater. She also says this flood surpasses the 2001/2002 floods, and her house has somehow managed to survive all the large floods over the years.
“I knew what happened in the 2001 and 2002 floods, so I was kind of okay with it, and my house should be okay because it already survived the ’77 flood, the ’01, the ’02 flood, so I felt that it was going to be okay,” Stout said.
Stout’s home, while damaged, has seemingly withstood yet another bad flood. She said her grandmother’s home, which is two doors down, is in bad shape with inches of mud in the living space.
Clean-up efforts within Welch and all of McDowell County will take, as one resident said, “an army of people,” but Davis says his hometown has been knocked to its knees before, and they will come through it.
“This place has been beaten down more than once and we always rise,” Davis said. “God is always lifting us up. God is always with the lowly, and we’ve been pressed pretty low, and we’re pretty low right now, but together we’re going to pull together and we’re going to get through this one way or the other. With God’s grace, we’re going to get through this.”