4 months after the flood, W.Va. families continue to struggle

Associated Press

CLAY, W.Va.

Peggy and Jason Conley are grateful for their new home – even though it has almost no insulation, no running water and no power.

“It could be worse; we could be totally homeless,” Jason Conley said. “I’ve seen people with worse.”

The family lost everything when their rented Clendenin home flooded June 23. So they, their 18-year-old son, Nathan, and his fiancee, Ashley, moved back to land that Peggy’s family owns in Clay County.

Jason said assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency went to the landlord who owned their rental home.

The family got “a pat on the back and [they said] ‘move on,”’ he said.

The couple, who live on the disability checks they each receive, moved into the shell of a new cabin, which they’re buying from a Hurricane company. They had it shipped to Peggy’s family’s land on Pumpkin Ridge Road in Procious.

As of late October, they had lived in the building three weeks with no utilities. They were trying to get the electricity turned on.

One night when the temperature was expected to drop, the Conleys asked the Greater Clay Long-Term Recovery Committee for help buying fuel for their generator.

“I was so grateful to get some heat,” Peggy said.

The Conleys are one of several families in Clay County who survived the flood but are living without basic utilities or in homes that contain mold. As the temperature drops this winter, their situations are likely to become more desperate.

Brandy O’Brien, chairwoman of the Greater Clay Long-Term Recovery Committee, said she fears colder temperatures and depression will be lethal to the people they are trying to help.

“[I’m afraid] I’m going to get a phone call [saying], ‘We found them dead,’ and that’s very realistic with the situation right now,” O’Brien said. “Very. That’s my biggest fear.”

O’Brien said there are some families who have stayed in their houses, which look fine from the outside but have mold growing inside. She said one woman came to the committee asking for help repairing her bridge that washed out during the flood. What she didn’t mention was that she also didn’t have a roof on her home.

“They don’t want to take too much,” O’Brien said. “[They say] other people need it more than them, and then you get the people that say, ‘We could fix this, but we just need a little help with this.’ Well, this stuff is going to kill them.”