SUMMERSVILLE, W.Va. — Aaron Maloney was fortunate on June 23, 2016. Then the owner of Maloney’s Pub in Summersville, he said the massive flooding that day had less of an impact where he lived compared to other places.
“I had never seen water like that, especially in my own yard but really anywhere at that point,” Maloney said. “I met my wife, and I was looking around like, ‘Oh my god, this is bad, this isn’t good.”
Others in Nicholas County were not as fortunate.
“I was thinking, my gosh, if it’s this bad here in downtown Summersville area, what’s it like in downtown Richwood?”
His prediction turned out to be, unfortunately, correct.
“As the day went along, you start seeing pictures and videos, and you just really couldn’t believe what your eyes are seeing,” he said.
One of the first things he remembered in the aftermath was how much help came to his corner of the world. Whether from northern West Virginia or from out-of-state entirely, it felt like an army of Good Samaritans had descended on the likes of Nicholas, Fayette, Webster, Greenbrier and Clay counties.
“It just seemed like there were new people coming in from all the time to help from out of state,” he said.
Maloney would run into them sometimes at the pub. Inspired by the generosity of those who had come to West Virginia to help, he wanted to do his part as well.
“The unity that was shown, people donating supplies – I’ve never seen anything like that,” he said. “As far as natural disasters, you see stuff on the news. You’ll see hurricanes or tornadoes ravage places. But this one hit home, and it was the first time I had ever seen people come together like that.”
Sometimes he and his crew just cooked the food – usually pork – while volunteers would take it to hard hit areas. In some cases, like a trip to Dixie Elementary School, he and his dad took food and other supplies themselves. Notably, they couldn’t just take the direct trip on Route 39 in Nicholas County, because a bridge had been fully washed away before the community of Belva.
“Just big steel structures that were pummeled by the water,” Maloney said. “It was unfathomable for a bridge like that to be washed away.
Instead, it was up Gauley Mountain, through Ansted on U.S. 60 and back down the mountain to eventually land in Dixie.
“A lot of miles logged,” Maloney said. “I just kind of wanted to witness it.”
Help, he remembered, sometimes came in unusual ways. Maloney recalled an e-mail that he hadn’t been expecting from a name he didn’t know. It was Scott Patterson, former professional baseball player turned actor. One of the male leads on the popular show “Gilmore Girls” had found Maloney’s information and offered to bring his band to the pub for a fundraiser around a month after the events of June 23. Maloney agreed, though he missed the performance while out-of-state for a planned-in-advance family trip.
“I didn’t appreciate it – how cool that was,” Maloney said.
Though much of the scar tissue of the floods is physically no longer around, Maloney said there are still some reminders – notably that Summersville Middle School students are still learning in pods rather than a school building. Like with the opening of Richwood High School last year, he’s hopeful that will change soon for Summersville Middle.
“It seems like the bricks are in the ground,” Maloney said.
About a year after the floods, Maloney did see an episode of “Gilmore Girls” that featured Patterson. That reminded him how special it all was for people from so many different walks of life to come together in support of countless flood-ravaged West Virginia communities.
“It was a tragedy. People will never forget it.”