We were on a road trip across the country and driving through West Virginia on a secondary highway. Figured there would be a diner or place to eat where the sign pointed to some town.
We got onto the smaller road and there was a semi and a few cars off to the side of the road all smashed. I thought that was odd, but...
Went a bit further and got to where the “town” was and there was a small restaurant - but it had collapsed from the flooding. Along with numerous other places.
The road became one lane as they were clearing the mudslide.
Ended up turning around in a church parking lot and they had a “Donations” sign by a big garage. It was full of people so I figured the least I could do was write a check to help them.
Before I could even do that I told them how we had hoped to get lunch in town. The gal invited us to a picnic table as they had hamburgers and hotdogs for all the volunteers and people that had lost their homes. I tried to beg off, but she said they had plenty. (Wife, myself and two teenage daughters).
The main floor of the church was okay but the basement was trashed. The huge garage had flooded on the ground floor but the second floor was okay. They had the ground floor cleaned up and it was filled with food, water and donated clothing.
The pastor’s home had been destroyed - but he was out helping other’s clean their homes.
He stopped by the church and chatted for a bit. He pointed up onto the hillside on the other side of the road (the church was below the road a bit, and then further down the hill below the church was his destroyed home and then the small river.
Up on the hill he pointed out the large trees (16 inch + diameter?) along the road that were snapped off about 20 feet above the road elevation. He said the water came rushing over the hill like a water fall and snapped the trees off 20 feet up in the air!
the pictures ive seen of the Nelson County flooding are just astonishing...there were 2 rivers that really went wild...the “Rockfish” was normally about 6 feet across and maybe 2-3 feet deep..really just a mountain stream..and the “Tye” river that feeds into the James River. As i said, theres quite a debate over exactly what happened, but the forecast for that night called for “an occasional shower”....it all just happened out of nowhere...scary.
How did your teenage daughters process it?