By Esteban Fernandez
For Times West Virginian
Fairmont — Under pitch black conditions, members of Fairmont’s Fire Department swift water team pulled people to safety in Upshur County.
“Our first one was a semi-truck driver,” Jason Scott, firefighter, said. “He was actually out, standing on the hood of his tractor trailer. He was obviously stuck. The truck wouldn’t move, the water was that high. Then we had three young children out of a house.”
Fairmont stepped up to help Upshur County after a torrential downpour brought parts of North Central West Virginia underwater Tuesday. The governor issued a state of emergency for all 55 counties prior to the storm. The storm missed Fairmont, but Buckhannon and other parts of Upshur and Lewis counties weren’t as lucky.
In response, the City of Fairmont dispatched members of its fire department while members from the community undertook their own collection efforts to help with relief efforts.
Scott said the fire department sent 10 of its members, which broke up into two different teams. They used flashlights and headlamps to navigate as well as auxiliary lighting on their boats. Scott said nighttime made things extremely difficult, and coupled with the department members working in an unfamiliar area made the work challenging. At least there wasn’t much of a current, just high standing water, Scott said.
“You can’t see what you’re walking, so you got to worry about holes and obstructions,” Scott said. “Power lines might be down, floating debris, things you can’t see, especially at night time. And of course, you have to watch the current and be cautious so it doesn’t take us where we don’t want to be.”
Fire Department Shift Capt. Bob Sliger they ended up rescuing approximately 16 people, all either pulled from their cars or taken to a BFS store in the area. They also checked on the Hampton Inn because they saw flashlights in the windows. Hotel guests ended up sheltering in place because the building was in relatively sound shape, at least until rescue workers could figure out a good way to get all 50 out.
Sliger said a team from the Farmington Volunteer Fire Department also joined the effort. He said it was also hard to keep track of everything that was happening because there was so much radio traffic going on between all the different rescue agencies working in the area.
“There was definitely a lot to deal with between trying to coordinate everything,” Sliger said. “You also have miles of cars backed up, and obviously people aren’t happy. They can’t figure out how to get around it. You’re trying to navigate that section of it to, with people coming up and asking questions and trying to reshore them. Just stay in your car. There’s nothing that can be done at this time. It’s definitely a lot all at once.”
While rescue workers did what they could in Upshur, the Tygart Valley United Way set up collection for supplies and cash funds. Casey Gilbert, community impact director for the organization, said United Way is collecting items from a list provided by the Lewis County Family Resource Center. They are in need primarily of bottled water, cleaning supplies and diapers.
Last year’s flood in Fairmont loomed over this year’s relief effort for Upshur and Lewis.
“The major difference is, this is more widespread than what we experienced in Fairmont,” Gilbert said. “I think this is going to take a lot more to plan out and might be some more serious damage to homes there. It’s a similar situation but they’re going to have their own challenges to work through and we just want to be able to offer support from our experience, however we can.”
Gilbert said they’ve set up a digital link for cash donations, which can be found on the United Way Facebook page. It’s the same platform they used to collect cash donations for Fairmont last year. Supply donations can be dropped off at their Fairmont office on Washington Street, she said.
Community residents also stepped up. Sophia Shumway, a Fairmont based tattoo artist, launched a tattoo fundraiser. Lewis is providing $50 worth of tattoo services, provided participants first donate $30 to relief efforts, along with proof of donation to qualify for the service. She asks an additional $20 to cover the cost of supplies for the tattoo. She has more detailed information on her social media pages.
Shumway sees the climate crisis as the cause of the increasing severe storm events impacting West Virginia.
“I have family members that live in Barbour County and in Buckhannon, and just seeing the results of the climate crisis, it’s just really heartbreaking,” she said. “Like, how can you not do something, you know?”
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