CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Along Sugar Creek Road in Charleston a half dozen folks used shovels and wheel barrows to push mud out of their basement and garages.
“My brother is going to come over with a tractor and this will go a whole lot faster,” said Cassandra Hagerman.
She and John Wheeler took a break from cleaning and trying to move as much of the soaked belongings out to the curb as they could. Everything in the garage and basement was a total loss.
“I’m a tool girl so I lost a lot of power tools, ” she added
As she sat on the porch recounting Sunday evening a soaked piece of notebook paper with hand written text lay in the sun to dry. It was a report her daughter had completed during elementary school about slavery. On another stand was a stack of cards from Christmas, graduation, and other occasions. Small keepsakes which Cassandra hoped would be among the few things from storage which can survive the high water which came suddenly.
“It started up and we moved the cars from around back to the front, but by the time I got back to the house the neighbor was screaming and it was all the way up in the basement. It also started to fill in behind the church. So I packed some clothes and headed to my mother’s house,” she said.
Cassandra was fearful the water would soon surround the entire house as the rain poured and the runoff intensified.
“It just happened quick. In minutes it went from this deep to maybe 12 feet up to the first floor in less than ten minutes,” said Wheeler. “It destroyed everything. There were cars floating in it and all kinds of stuff.”
Across the road from their home is an open field with a large pile of debris. Cassandra said she called the Division of Highways to report it, fearful in another strong storm system it would create more debris to dam up the creek at the bridge just a few hundred yards downstream. Although back in its banks, another extreme deluge would send Sugar Creek right back into her yard and basement.
Further up Sugar Creek, Tiffany Spurlock and Donald Weekley manned shovels and a pressure washer. Much like Wheeler and Hagerman, they were trying to push five inches of mud out of their basement garage and driveway.
“We literally just got home and saw the creek rising up. We were going to try and move the cars back here and by the time I got the keys and got back out here, they were already under water,” said Spurlock.
Inside the garage, Weekley noted most of his tools were lost, but was happy for once the high water did not impact his heat pump.
“I had to rebuild it after the last flood, but it survived this one,” he explained.
The most damage along Sugar Creek Drive was infrastructure. Large culverts washed out and there was crumbling asphalt along the road’s edge. Many of the bridges, most of which are private, were covered with debris left behind by the high water. The city of Charleston will work to make those repairs as recovery continues.
“It’s all just stuff. My dogs are safe and we are safe,” Weekley said as he shoveled one more scoop of mud out of the driveway.