Planning Relief After Historic Flooding in West Virginia

Donna Lee from the American Red Cross helped Tzu Chi volunteers get around once they arrived, since travel was difficult with wreckage piled up in certain areas. Volunteers visited the houses of several survivors who were by then able to return home to begin the massive clean-up that awaits.

In the home of Randy Hudson, one of the flood victims, all the household contents were ruined so everything had to be discarded, all the wallpaper was to be peeled off, and the entire house sanitized to eliminate hazardous mold.

Randy was still in shock over what had happened, and it was easy to understand why when he showed volunteers a photo taken during the peak of the disaster: It showed a surreal scene of a house that was completely submerged while engulfed in flames at the same time.

Tzu Chi volunteers then met with FEMA officer David Armstrong, and discussed possible disaster relief plans and distribution locations.

On June 30th, volunteers travelled to White Sulphur Springs, another disaster site 105 miles south of Charleston.

Local residents remembered how on the day of the flood, it all started with a downpour which in less than an hour dropped 60 inches of accumulating rain, downed trees, and demolished homes. Once the flooding finally subsided, residents faced a wasteland with garbage everywhere and nearly everything caked in mud. The residents explained that the houses marked with a red “X” were unsalvageable and too dangerous to even enter.