Employees and volunteers with Main Street Motors attempt to get files out of the office building that slide away from it’s foundation during the flood in Richwood. The business is owned by Donald Perrine and has he has been in the same location for 55 years.
RICHWOOD, W.Va. — Frank and Libby Cvetnick live high on the hill above Richwood, overlooking the downtown area, but the couple who have lived on Oakford Avenue for 58 years were not immune from Thursday’s floodwaters, as runoff from the steep mountain above them trapped them inside their home.
Oakford Avenue suffered severe damage when the waters rushed down the street, peeling pavement, shifting cars and digging a 3-foot-deep trench that exposed two generations of sewer lines, as well as picking up sections of sidewalk and shifting them like building blocks.
The Cvetnicks considered leaving, but there was nowhere to go.
“Where would you go?” Libby, 80, said. “There was a foot of water running down the street.”
At 85, Frank just had heart surgery in December, but he and Libby sat on their enclosed front porch until late Thursday night watching the water, but weren’t afraid, just astounded…