People in parts of Southern West Virginia are still cleaning up after flood waters swept through communities almost one week ago.
Eric Mullins rakes sand and rock from a front yard in North Welch. He carries the rubble down a driveway to the back of the house and slings the remnants of river bed back into the rushing waters.
“I really don’t know what people is going to do around here," Mullins said.
His property was not damaged in this flood, but he’s helping a retired family friend to clean up.
“They get so discouraged but it’s home they can’t just give up," he said. "Sometimes you feel like it but you got to keep going on."
He says his sister’s home was completely washed away in the last flood.
“You have to deal with stuff like this on a constant basis," he said. "Anytime it rains a lot you better get your bible out and start praying because you might not have a home the next morning."
Mullins wipes his brow as a pack of National Guard Vehicles hum by. Just up the street Ed Kornish, one of the county prosecutors is cleaning his flood damaged basement.
“It’s gotten worse here in the last 10 years," Kornish says. "People attribute it to a lot of things. I think part of the things that influence North Welch and Stuart Street is our county did a big development going out of the county where the federal prison is now, basically doing a mountain top removal and every since then we’ve got a lot more water."
In North Welch, Kornish says along with the rain, the logging and mining activity surrounding the new federal prison is the biggest contributing factor to the floods.
Closer to the federal prison, cars detour around a hole that used to be part of Welch-Pineville Road, also in North Welch.
At the foot hill, Marilyn Tilley is sitting on her front porch holding her cane while family members arrive at her house for another day of helping out.
“You cry a little bit you laugh a little bit and you keep going," Tilley said.
Tilly lost her car, and now, after living in that same house for more than 60 years, she may have to move. One of the basement walls caved in and she expects it would cost more to repair it than it would to move in with her son.
“You learn in 4th grade that the root systems is what holds the water," she said. "And the prison, there’s a lot of trees gone from the prison."
"Swap off one problem for another I guess. You want the employment that the prison brings but it’s making a problem for the water system but that’s my opinion."
After smiling and laughing, Tilley finally breaks down.
“With my conditions it’s hard but you just have to," she said. "I told somebody the other day that I guess this is the lord’s way of saying you got to get with it, but we’ll see."
Tilley’s neighbor Audrey Blevins will still have a home but lost three antique cars, a heat pump and more in this flood. She too feels helpless.
“It’s getting worse now it’s getting more often now," she said. "We really think, everybody thinks it’s because they are logging out of the mountains this is the worst we’ve ever had it."
Blevins has lived in North Welch for more than 20 years. She says if the logging continues, she’ll probably also try to move.