ELKVIEW, W.Va. — It’s been a slow cleanup process for Kanawha County residents impacted by the June 23 flood.
“I’m just now getting started on putting the dry wall back up and insulation,” said Mike Ferrell, of Elkview.
Ferrell stopped by Herbert Hoover High School Friday to drop off flood debris during a two-day cleanup event hosted by the Kanawha County Commission.
There was about four feet of water that got into Ferrell’s rental home, where three tenants lived, the day storms ripped through the Elk River community.
“It just happened so quick,” he said. “The water just come up and they didn’t have anywhere to go, really, they were trapped there. No one got hurt, luckily.”
For Mike Johnson, of Clendenin, he said his mobile home didn’t get hit as bad.
“Worse than some, better than some. I got about 18 inches in mine. Didn’t lose no life where I live and that’s all that matters,” Johnson told MetroNews.
Not much is left to do inside his home, Johnson said, but he said it’s been a long cleanup process.
“I’m probably 95 percent complete with mine,” he said.
As of 12 p.m. Friday, more than 160 vehicles drove through the drop off site. Crews helped unload materials in the high school parking lot. The school itself has been boarded up since flood waters destroyed the building.
Kanawha County Planning Director Steve Neddo said four hours into the cleanup, nearly six roll off dumpsters were filled with debris.
“We’re not questioning anybody. We’re mainly here trying to help people out,” Neddo said. “Of course we won’t accept paint and chemicals and things like that.”
All solid waste will be accepted. Tires, scrap metals and newer electronics will be recycled.
The county has collected over 17,000 tons of debris from Elkview and Clendenin since the flood, according to the Kanawha County Commission.
“We just saw a lot of trash and we saw a big need for it,” Neddo said.
Crews will be at Hoover again on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
This is the county’s final cleanup event until Spring 2017.