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Last week our family was supposed to be on vacation. Toward the end of the week prior, we were packing and I was pulling posts together for the blog, and then the family we were camping with called in a panic. Water was pouring into their basement.
That Thursday night there was a flurry of texts and phone calls as we checked to see how they were doing. There was panic when her husband set out in his canoe to help rescue neighbors from their quickly flooding homes.
Never did they dream the words ‘flash flooding’ would so change their little town, White Sulphur Springs, WV.
Maybe you saw some of the pictures on the news. Houses literally floating off their foundations. Neighborhoods in complete devastation. Roads gone. Over 25 people dead.
Vacation seemed like a rather ridiculous option at that point, and my husband and I headed over to help our friends and the White Sulphur Springs community. You all – I can’t even adequately put into words all that we saw. Here’s an update I shared with some friends via Facebook:
Today we delivered meals into one of the hardest hit areas of the flooding in West Virginia. I stood next to a man who just held my hand and cried as he looked at his trailer. Mud everywhere and a complete loss. Nothing to salvage. He looked at me and said, “I know it may not mean anything to others, but it was all I had.” And he just cried.
Other than holding his hand, there was nothing to say. How do you even respond, other than saying how sorry you are and crying along with them? So we stood and cried together and he talked. As we left, he told me, “God bless you – have a great day!”
After losing everything – well, I really didn’t even know how to reply other than praying for him and hugging him. Which truly – it seems so trite in a situation like this.
Most everything we saw the past few days in White Sulphur Springs hasn’t been saved to film – because really, a picture shows so little of the story and seems like an intrusion on something incredibly personal to so many.
It’s just devastating.
Our family is working on ways we can still help. The surrounding communities have been pouring in help and relief, but there is so much that needs to be done in the upcoming weeks and months.
The community itself has been pulling together in amazing ways, gathering donations and feeding families before emergency relief was available.Witnessing the support for and from everyone was truly amazing. The church we connected with though lost four members – three from one family alone, and everyone is reeling from the loss.
One organization, Samaritan’s Purse, already had teams in some of the hardest hit areas, scooping mud and debris, cleaning out houses, and helping restore homes for families – long before Red Cross and FEMA were even on site. If you would like to help with any of the relief efforts, they are one that I would highly recommend partnering with – whether it be putting together a team of volunteers to help physically with restoration or sending a monetary donation for disaster relief. There are other wonderful organizations as well, but our family has been involved with Samaritan’s Purse in the past and they are an organization we know and trust.
More than anything, will you continue to pray for the families impacted by this storm?
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I grew up in Nicholas County and drive through Greenbrier County to visit my Dad. The loss is just devastating for these people. So much that we don’t think about when we see flooding on tv on on a computer screen. Fortunately my dad lives at the top of the area in his neighborhood, so he did not have any damage. However, in addition to seeing homes in ruin, seeing the schools with three to five feet of water in them, seeing waterlogged books in huge piles outside libraries, and stacks of waterlogged furniture outside churches, as well as burned out businesses makes one think about how compete the destruction was. The flood took everything, although I am glad to see many examples of faith in the midst of it all.
This also brought up a lot of conversation between my husband and I on how much we hear about, but don’t realize the impact until it hits close to home for us (family or friends are affected). It has made us so much more aware – especially when you see someone asking to help with donations, something that’s easy to help with and also easy to forget about when you see it in passing on Facebook.