OHIO VALLEY — A group of volunteers from the Mountain State and beyond has gathered in Elm Grove since June 15 to muck out basements and recover personal items from homes impacted by the flooding.
The Ohio Valley Mutual Aid group is a volunteer effort open to anyone who wants to assist those impacted by the flash flooding in the Ohio Valley. The Toy & Train Museum has served as the organization’s base for organizing supplies and volunteer efforts since Tuesday after it outgrew its original location of Wheelcraft Bicycles.
OV Mutual Aid Team Lead Nate Heckman, 28, has donated his time to the group since June 16. His role entails organizing volunteers into teams of three to five people to head out to impacted houses in Valley Grove and Triadelphia with supplies for cleaning and recovery.
As he prepared groups to head out again Friday morning, Heckman estimated the group had cleaned about 70 houses on Thursday.
He said the group cleaned the greatest number of houses on June 16 and 17, with about 200 cleaned on those days.
How long a volunteer assists with mutual aid is at their discretion. Heckman said most volunteers work for about two to three hours, noting that some choose to spend the whole day working.
“Some people have gone all day,” Heckman said. “I sent out a group at 9 a.m. yesterday, and they didn’t call me until 5 p.m., when I was already at my job. It’s definitely up to their discretion.”
OV Mutual Aid Volunteer Jamie Fenske, 64, has traveled from Weirton every day since June 16 to volunteer with the group. He joked that he has “two hometowns that start with ‘W,’” as he raised three daughters in Wheeling and wanted to return to help the community after the flooding.
“In addition to raising three daughters here, I’m involved in half a dozen nonprofits,” Fenske said. “Wheeling is such a giving community that it’s like you don’t leave it entirely once you go.”
Fenske’s first two days with OV Mutual Aid were spent in the field helping muck out basements. This work was familiar to him as a retired West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection environmental inspector supervisor.
“I’ve supervised flood responses for the DEP for some of the worst flooding in McDowell and Mingo counties,” Fenske said. “I’ve been down there multiple times for multiple incidents, and this flooding ranks as high, if not more severe, than some of those. That says a lot.”
OV Mutual Aid teams begin cleaning out basements after a fire department has pumped out the typically 5 to 6 feet of flood water that has entered. Once the water is removed, Fenske said OV Mutual Aid teams will enter to carry out all the belongings and then begin mucking out the basements, which could contain “anywhere from 2 to 6 to 8 inches of mud.”
“You can imagine when a wall of water comes through a basement, all the items in there, whether that was furniture, workout gear, bicycles or old photos, have to be carried out,” Fenske said. “There are no lights on, no air conditioning, so you have to wear headlamps. It’s also slicker than snot, so it can take days just to do that because you’re carrying out a lifetime of people’s possessions.”
Fenske added that the muddy items can become two to three times heavier than usual. He noted there was also a limited opportunity to remove items and muck out areas as the mud becomes “as hard as concrete” once it dries.
“You have a window of opportunity to remove those items, and that window is now, so that’s why we need volunteers,” Fenske said. “We get to some homes, and we’re there for half a day or all day, and we only get partway done, so then we have to go back.”
Fenske said the volunteers often form “bucket brigades” to carry loads of mud from the basements in 5-gallon buckets.
“They used to fight fires 200 years ago by a bunch of workers passing a bucket up the stairs from hand to hand,” Fenske said. “Anyone who sees what we’re doing in Valley Grove will connect the dots to that. It’s all very labor-intensive.”
St. Clairsville resident Kelsey Cromar, 32, is an OV Mutual Aid volunteer who has had her sleeves rolled up helping with flood recovery since Sunday. She wanted to “immediately help” with the cleanup because she used to live on Peters Run Road.
“When I saw how flooded it got, I immediately remembered one of my elderly neighbors on Peters Run Road, and headed out on Sunday (June 15) morning to see if I could help her,” Cromar said. “I happened to drive past all the damage in Triadelphia and Elm Grove, and I just kind of put the word out there that help was needed. I got linked with OV Mutual Aid, and we just started with a group of maybe five of us, and now we’ve had over 230 people come out and volunteer.”
Cromar was happy to learn that her elderly neighbor was not home during the flooding. After seeing the devastation in the area, Cromar wants to help with OV Mutual Aid for as long as needed.
“For the past two days, I’ve been here since 8 a.m. when we opened and stayed until we shut down around 6 p.m.,” Cromar said. “I will do runs up to the Guntry or Wheeling University, which is now the main distribution center, to grab supplies, but I mainly just hand out supplies here.”
Cromar lost her wedding ring while cleaning yesterday, but said she “could not even be upset about it” in light of what others in the community had lost. In addition to the physical toll the recovery can take, she noted the emotional weight the flood recovery has as well.
“We’ve actually had a lot of people show up here emotional and start crying immediately,” Cromar said. “Yesterday, we had a counseling table over there for people who just needed to have a conversation and cry for a second. I’ve never seen so much sadness in a lot of these people’s faces — they lost everything they’ve worked for, including family members.”
Wheeling native Nataya Bartlett, 24, made the trip from Morgantown on Friday to assist in recovery efforts. She was motivated to help after seeing the tragedy unfold from afar.
“I just felt a sense of calling to return home,” Bartlett said. “Unfortunately, someone I knew in high school did lose their younger sibling in the flooding. It’s crazy how far we drift apart after high school, but then come back together in such tragedies.”
Bartlett took the weekend off from her job to assist with the recovery and added that she hopes to continue to make the trip down over the next couple of weeks.
“It’s really amazing and inspirational to see the community band together and help each other out during this time,” Bartlett said.
Miles Case, 21, was another OV Mutual Aid volunteer who made the trip from Morgantown on Friday to help clean up from the flooding. Case said he had “some experience” in mutual aid and knew he could connect with volunteers in Wheeling to lend his time. He emphasized the importance of young people stepping up to help after a tragedy.
“We need young people to step up and help out, especially in states where it seems like you can’t always rely on the people in power,” Case said. “It’s important to be able to have a community around you because at the end of the day, those are going to be the people who are going to come out and help you, not the people in power.”
Wheeling resident Audrey Bennett, 18, was surprised to see fellow WVU students when she began volunteering with OV Mutual Aid on Tuesday. She learned about their efforts after her mother sent her a link to the group’s Facebook page.
“I was really surprised about how many people are coming from outside of Wheeling to help,” Bennett said. “There was a woman from Buckhannon here the other day, and I’m pretty sure she drove all the way up here.”
Bennett said it was “really nice” to see so many people from her hometown and college town come together to help with the flooding recovery.
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