I know I haven't been very active on the site lately, but this is just to let people know that not all of West Virginia is under water. Only 44 of our 55 counties are under a state of emergency. My younger son and his family, and Lynda and I are in two of those 11 counties that did not get hit.

One of my friends has put a 53 foot trailer in our little town for emergency items, like cleaning supplies and cleaning items like buckets, mops, shovels, etc. They also need personal items like soap, toothpaste, etc, underwear, diapers, etc. Those are just some of the biggest needs right now. One of my friend's drivers will take the trailer to a distribution center in the southern part of the state on Wednesday morning.

Several of us are making arrangements through three different relief groups to go somewhere on Tuesday morning. The task of organizing such an disaster is overwhelming. We don't know where we will be going just yet, or what we will be doing.

I've got a 6'x10' cargo trailer. Another friend has a 7'x14' cargo trailer. We figure we will go down this week for several days, and then return, rest up, and get ready for the next phase. A number of us have done this before. Most recently a number of our group were in Mississippi after Katrina.

We can only guess how we will be utilized and what we will be asked to bring with us. We all have a lot of tools and skills. We also have a lot of big companies in our area that may be making donations of what they manufacture.

As of last night, the top groups that rely on a structured upward flow of assistance from little groups like ours, put out this needs list:

Tree Removal Teams
Muck Out Teams
Damage Assessments Teams
Emotional and Spiritual Care Teams
Feeding

Anyway, keep West Virginia in your thoughts and prayers.

Ken

You got it. Prayers for WVa.

Texas has been through a lot of the same. But, 90% of our State didn't get hit.

Ken, I was thinking of you all Friday, and I'm glad all is well. Just incredible flooding.

Thanks guys. I know you know what it is like to get these kinds of storms.

I got this update a little while ago from a friend who runs one of the disaster relief organizations:



Thanks again,
Ken

Prayers of course. Tempting to head down the the Cheat river for a little class 5 rapid adventure! That river is one of the toughest I have rafted and a blast.
Wish I were retired qnd could volunteer more, but tough with a 10 year old.

The Cheat is high, but not bad. I personally would not get on it.

I had a pretty close call about 4 or 5 years ago. I was in the water for about 90 minutes on the South Branch Potomac near Romney, WV, below "The Trough" during a volunteer river cleanup when the water was high and cold. Without proper equipment and training, I would have just been a search, and not a rescue. I eventually got out of the river on my own. The worst casualty was that my "water proof" cell phone had died by drowning.

Presently, most of the rivers north of Corridor H and US-50 are just rather high and muddy.

In my younger days it was fun to raft, canoe, and try to fish on the New River and on the Gauley River. I don't know where they actually rank in white water, but I'm sure they are in the serious "brown water" category, and well out of their banks at this point.

I'm headed towards 69 years old, and would not do either river again, even in a drought.

Ken

Ken, a friend lives in Covington, VA and he had a heck of a time getting home the day of the storm. All 5 routes to his house were blocked to flooded roads. He finally got home by going across some private property.

His wife works in White Sulfur, and her mom is there too, and she takes her grand daughter (whom they have custody of) to her mom to watch when she is at work. With the disruption in phone services and electric services for 2 days he thought all 3 were among the missing people. She was finally able to contact him 2 days later to tell him that everybody was OK and that she would be home when the roads were passable.

They live up on a hill, so their house is OK, but the nearest mom and pop grocery store that is closer to the stream is flat out gone.

Scott,

Yes, that is the exact area we will be going into. We may just take a load of needed supplies down, see what else they need, and come back for another load. We are awaiting clearance to go down. I-64 should be open, but I'm not sure how, where, or when we'll be able to get to a distribution center in the area of Covington and White Sulfur Springs.

We're getting cleaning supplies and associated things like buckets and mops. Water, personal hygiene products, diapers, and pet food are also on todays list.