Robson, WV (WOAY) – Sunday’s flash flooding tore through the Mulberry Fork community in Robson, washing out the road and cutting off families deep in the Fayette County hollow. Days later, power and internet have returned. Running water still has not.
The National Weather Service estimates more than 5 inches of rain fell across Fayette County in a matter of hours Sunday morning, making it one of the hardest-hit areas as flash flooding spread across southern West Virginia. Along Mulberry Fork, residents say the creek rose with almost no warning.
“We had like five minutes to do what we could, put the most valuable things up on beds … So we had pretty extensive damage here,” said Robbie Miller, a Mulberry community resident.
The danger came fast. As the water surged, an older neighbor tried to turn his four-wheeler around on the road which was overtaken by the creek.
“The creek water was so fast and the current was so fast that it flipped his four-wheeler,” said Brittany Barber, another Mulberry community resident. “My husband and my brother in law actually had to get him out of the creek. He said he floated for about a mile before he actually got pulled out of the creek.”
When the water dropped, it left the families deepest in the hollow with no road at all. A portion of Mulberry Fork Road was entirely washed away by the creek, and for a time the only way in or out was on foot through the woods.
Many families here can reach their homes only by crossing private bridges over the creek, and the flood ripped many of those out.
“My husband and my brother in law had to walk the ridgeline,” Barber said. “One of my in-laws is on oxygen. She can’t do it. There’s no way.”
Before outside crews reached them, neighbors went to work with whatever they had.
“As soon as they could get out, they were with chain saws, their own excavators and tractors, trying to make a way for us to get out,” Miller said. “People in the community just stopping by and dropping off of their own personal supply, water and wet wipes … and the Robson Freewill Baptist Church down here doing dinners for everyone.”
Residents say that when they first reached out for help, they were largely left to fend for themselves.
“We live in a flood zone. So … it’s going to happen again,” Barber said. “Just next time it does happen, maybe have a plan in place beforehand and not make us beg for help.”
For all they are still waiting on, residents say the flood revealed something special about a community this close.
“To take something like this, which is devastation, to see what really makes Appalachia so special,” Miller said. “And it’s the community.”
Gov. Patrick Morrisey declared a state of emergency for all 55 West Virginia counties Tuesday evening, giving emergency management better access to the resources needed in the hardest-hit areas. Crews are still working to fully reopen Mulberry Fork Road.
