February 29, 2008- Leap Day

I haven't blogged in a week and although I've thought about it and have had things I wanted to chat about, I just never made it over here. But I'm here now so here goes.....

First, is this election getting nasty or what on the Democratic side? I believe when Obama is declared the Democratic candidate things will explode. On the Republican side Huckabee is just making me laugh, in a good way. He's going to hold on until John McCain gets those delegates and he's not leaving until he does. I like him but Mike Huckabee doesn't have a chance. When both candidates are declared I hope the Democrats and Republicans will play nice. It's not likely though. Sigh, I wish it were over ALREADY!

Secondly, I want to talk about and remember something that happened in both my husband's and my life 36 years ago, Feb 26th.

February 26, 1972 was on a Saturday, a cold raining Saturday. Around 8:30am I was sweeping up in my Mom's Fabric Shop getting ready for the day while Mom and my sis were sleeping in the back of the store, where we lived. My dad came rushing in (he and Mom were divorcing) saying we had to get out of the store immediately because the dam had broke. The Buffalo Creek Dam had broke. I didn't have a clue what he meant.

Mom got up and didn't believe a word dad said. She said "Oh I've heard that for years. That dam isn't going to break!" Again I want to say I didn't have any idea about any dam or where it was and so forth. We were living in the tiny town of Man, West Virginia and my "future" husband lived 3 miles up Buffalo Creek but still miles from the initial break. I was 15 years old and he was 18 and we both attended High School. I do believe if we had stayed in the store we may have been hurt- but, Mom finally got dressed and we all left the store for higher ground.



The dam I'm talking about is the Buffalo Creek Dam and it did break sending over a 150 millions gallons of dirty coal sludge, water and debris down a 17 mile valley killing 125 people, some of them my class mates and friends. The photo above doesn't begin to reveal how big this dam was. It was 3 different inpoundment dams stacked against each other. When it broke the initial wave of water was 40 feet high. The black wave kept hitting one side of the mountain and bouncing into the other side of the mountain in a zigzag motion on down Buffalo Creek leaving devastation in it's wake. On and on it traveled ripping into one little community after another until it roared into the Guyandotte River at Man leaving 125 dead, 1100 hurt and 4000 left homeless.

Houses that were tossed against each other and slammed into bridges and mountainsides disintegrated into toothpicks. The force of the water was so strong it wrapped railroad steel around trees and warped bridges into odd shapes. 17 miles from the dam, on the street I lived the water was still 6 feet high, picking up cars and moving them down the road leaving mud a foot deep.







When they found the victims, most had the clothes torn off their bodies and they were unrecognizable because of the blackness and dirt on their skin. One girl in my class was identified by her class ring that miraculously stayed on her hand- her name was etched on the inside band. One miracle baby was found buried in the mud and is alive today. Our little area was inundated with major news networks, national guard, the red cross, the salvation army and so many others who came to help and assist. Needless to say, our little valley took years to be cleaned up and restored. If you travel the road up Buffalo Creek "holler" today, you would never realize that a disaster ever happened. Many people moved vowing to never come back but my family stayed and so did my husband's and we will never forget that cold dark Saturday.



There is so much more I could write about that day and how it changed and did not change our lives but I believe anyone reading this will know that it was a dark time in the history of our little area. The flood was caused by the negligence of a coal company. At that time coal was king and it still is today. My husband and I both come from coal mining families. I am a coal miner's grand daughter, daughter and wife. That's right, my husband and 2 of his brothers are still coal miners and I guess we all have a little coal dust running in our veins. It's still a nasty, dirty, dangerous job but it may provide some of your electricity. I know it does mine. I'm proud of my heritage because we are a strong, hardworking breed of people and whether anyone likes it or not coal is important to our country.

There's alot of debate in this country about being green and conservation and so forth and I'm all for that if it doesn't devastate the economy and livelihood of hundreds of communities and thousands and thousand of lives. There's a way to make it all right and I hope one day we will, but that is a subject for another blog though.

I just wanted to commemorate February 26, 1972, the Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster, a little bit because I have never written about it before. I thank God more people didn't get killed that day and my family stayed safe.

Until next time, Be Blessed.