Meals make way to W.Va. flood victims
Betty Robison of McDonald, left, and other volunteers took meals Saturday to victims of June’s flood in Clendenin, W.Va.
Geographic Information Systems Field Technicians for NewCom Technologies Matt Vander Kamp, left, and Daniel Petro remap the plots of Mary Osborne Cemetery in Clendenin, W.Va. Friday. NewCom Technologies, an Iowa-based company, donated the duos’ time to remap Mary Osborne and Koontz cemeteries after late-June floods destroyed the physical records for the two cemeteries.
Volunteers from Washington County delivered hundreds of pounds of homemade meals Saturday to flood victims in Clendenin, W.Va., a town that is still cleaning up after the June 23 disaster.
The more than 500 meals that were handed out were mostly prepared at McDonald Volunteer Fire Department using food that was donated by several area businesses, said Betty Robison, who was among those who started the drive.
“They were extremely thankful,” said Robison, of McDonald, while discussing those in Clendenin who accepted the meals.
“It is such a mess there,” she said. “It’s emotional.”
The storm dropped as many as 10 inches of rain in less than eight hours, killing 23 people and damaging 1,200 houses. The Associated Press reported last week 14,000 tons of debris were removed from the town and there was still a lot of cleanup remaining.
Robison said the story about the flood has dropped out of the news in the Washington area and many people do not know how much of a need there is in the town.
She said she heard about the problem from a relative who had made two trips to Clendenin and mentioned the idea of a food drive for the victims to a local 4-H Club.
“They said, ‘Yes. It’s something we need to do,'” Robison said.
One person donated all of the apples on his tree and they were used to make 10 gallons of applesauce. The fire department enlisted several men to oversee the kitchen, which produced pulled pork sandwiches using donations from Hog Father’s Old Fashioned BBQ in Washington and Panera Bread’s South Strabane Township location. A number of other dishes were prepared there for the nearly 200-mile trip.
“We gave the last of it away on the way home at a rest area,” Robison said.