Panther and Mullens residents outline flood damage and recovery efforts

MCDOWELL AND WYOMING COUNTIES, W.Va. (WVVA) - We’re continuing our coverage of talking with those who were affected by the severe flooding that hit the two Virginias last month.

Now we’re looking at some of the lesser known areas hit by flooding. Those areas include the Panther area of McDowell County and Mullens in Wyoming County.

Panther resident, Dan Justice says he watched the waters rise along Panther Creek and says it was just feet away from his home.

“We were getting ready for it. If it started climbing anymore we would have left there. We would have had to hit the woods,” said Justice.

Justice says he had to watch helplessly as flood waters carried his neighbor’s shed, slamming it into the base of his own. He says his shed was nearly swept away but ended up only suffering from water damage.

“It washed out the legs out under that and I replaced them yesterday. It’s just been a mess around here is all I know. I believe it’s a little worse this time than it was in ’02,” said Justice.

Justice says his grandson’s Ford Mustang wasn’t as lucky. It got swept away and could be seen lodged underneath a nearby bridge.

Non-profits, like the one in the Mullens Opportunity Center also fell victim to flooding.

The building is home to the Rural Appalachian Improvement League which helps those in recovery from addiction. We visited the building nearly two weeks after it flooded.

A lot of the mud and water had already been cleaned up by workers and volunteers.

“We would still be in mud if it wasn’t for all the volunteers that we had here at the MOC. I’m sure we had 100 people in and out of here in the first three days,” said Kristi Halsey, executive director of the non-profit.

Halsey says while they’ve cleaned up a lot, the building is not without damages. However, she says they’ve been continuing their work which includes recovery groups and getting those in recovery their GED.

“We’re slowly but surely coming back. We were just talking about this in the office that I’ve got to get a grant done for AmeriCorps by Friday of next week. The world keeps on spinning but the mud is still here so we’ve got a lot to do,” said Halsey.

Halsey says she feels like Appalachians get a bad reputation but says the people are quick to help one another out in times like these.

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