By: Elizabeth Sanders LaFleur | Posted: July 1, 2016 | Source: Greenville News
Jonathan and Melissa Cleghorn were out of town when devastating floods hit West Virginia late last week.
Cleghorn says a neighbor called to let him know the river behind their home in Clendenin, West Virginia was rising. Cleghorn says the family checked a river meter on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website and saw the water was rapidly rising. Over the next hours and days, Cleghorn said they watched as the river peaked at nearly 33 and a half feet. That peak broke a record from the 1880s and was more than 14 feet above flood stage.
Clendenin, a town of 1,200, is one of the towns hit hardest by last week’s flooding.
“The whole town is drowned out,” Cleghorn said. And homes on the river, like his, were hit hardest. The storm was called a “thousand year storm”, by forecasters. According to the National Weather Service, a “thousand year storm” means the chances of a storm that severe are one in a thousand in any given year.
The flooding of more than 33 feet was enough to wipe out Cleghorn’s basement and reached chest level on the first floor of the home he and his family have lived in for just over a year. The Cleghorns moved to Clendenin from Greenville in April 2015.
While in Greenville, Jonathan Cleghorn earned a masters degree at Bob Jones University and the family attended church at Calvary Baptist Church in Simpsonville. Their Simpsonville church family has reached out with donations and assistance, he said.
It’s much needed help. Cleghorn said they returned home from Virginia to find their basement was a total loss as sewers backed up into homes up and down their street. In addition to sewer flooding, Cleghorn said a chest freezer containing meat and other food was overturned, spilling spoiled food into the basement.
The Cleghorn’s children’s rooms are on the second floor of the home, so their clothes and toys were safe. Jonathan and Melissa lost much more. “Eighty percent of our clothes are gone,” he said.
Cleghorn’s sister has set up a gofundme page to help the family. As of Thursday afternoon, it has raised more than $6,100 of a $10,000 goal. In addition to financial help, Cleghorn said teams of volunteers have been around town all week, cleaning and help families regroup. “Last weekend there were just people going around asking how they could help. There were just people helping everywhere,” Cleghorn said.
Despite the devastation, Cleghorn said they’re trying to keep their situation in perspective, “We have an orange ribbon tied to the front of our house, which means everybody is safe and accounted for.”
The West Virginia flooding killed 23 people and damaged or destroyed more than 1,200 homes, according to Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.
