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WV family makes memorial of tree mother clung to

Charleston Gazette-Mail photo by Sam Owens The tree that Belinda Scott held onto after her Mill Hill Drive home (left) exploded during the massive June 23 flooding is now a makeshift memorial for the family in White Sulphur Springs. The tree is a few feet away from the house (rear) where her son, Kevin Scott, her daughter-in-law, Ashley Scott, and their two young children took shelter while waiting for a rescue crew to come. Belinda Scott had burns over 70 percent of her body. She died on June 26, after being taken off life support.
Charleston Gazette-Mail photo by Sam Owens
The tree that Belinda Scott held onto after her Mill Hill Drive home (left) exploded during the massive June 23 flooding is now a makeshift memorial for the family in White Sulphur Springs. The tree is a few feet away from the house (rear) where her son, Kevin Scott, her daughter-in-law, Ashley Scott, and their two young children took shelter while waiting for a rescue crew to come. Belinda Scott had burns over 70 percent of her body. She died on June 26, after being taken off life support.

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — There’s a tree here in White Sulphur Springs that the Scott family visits every day.

This is the tree that Belinda Scott reached to for safety during the June 23 flood. The tree she found herself trapped in after houses farther down Mill Hill Drive were washed off their foundations and hurtled toward her. The tree she held onto as her skin burned from the explosion she barely survived.

It’s the tree she clung to as her son, just feet away, in the attic of a neighbor’s house, tried to talk to her through the night.

“We’ve lost five people in Mill Hill Drive. I want everybody praying for everybody who lost someone in this tragedy,” said Ronnie Scott, Belinda’s husband. “I want everybody to pray for them, because this is the toughest thing you could ever go through.”

Belinda Scott, 55, didn’t drown…

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