The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Today's Front Page

Related Photos

  • Clay Blazer, 9, left, and Josh Blazer, 12, sit in the attic at their house on Violet Street in Beaver where they spent the night during the flood. Rick Barbero

    flood8
March 14, 2010

Beaver residents feared for their lives

By Michelle James Register-Herald Reporter

BECKLEY — At about 11 p.m. Friday night, Stacey Blazer sent her husband John outside to bring in Biscuit, the family dog, after noticing water from nearby Beaver Creek was moving into her back yard.

The creek continued to rise in the few minutes John was outside and by 11:30, the Violet Lane home had become part of the creek.

“It (water) came in quick and we had to get to the attic as fast as we could,” Blazer said.

Stacey, John and their sons, 12-year-old Josh and 9-year-old Clay, waded through chest-high water and hoisted each other up through a small opening located in a bedroom closet.

The family of four would remain in the dark, windowless attic for the next 12 hours as water roared through their house, knocking down anything in its way.

The Blazers were in contact with 911 several times throughout the night as they waited in the attic, wondering if the water would eventually catch up with them.

Each time they called, they were told rescuers were on their way.

“We could hear the boats and hear people but no one came,” Stacey Blazer said.

Finally, at about noon Saturday, a family friend called and said he had parked his car on nearby Tank Branch Road and was going to walk down the side of the mountain to help them out.

Shortly thereafter, the Blazers made their way out of their flooded house, up the side of the mountain and then to Stacey’s father’s home in Beckley.

- - -

Just across the street from the Blazer’s, Boots Dilley and her sister were dealing with the worst flooding they had ever seen.

Dilley, who now lives in Huntington but was in town visiting, said her father bought the house in 1932, and in the years she can remember, the creek had never gone higher than midway up their front porch steps.

Friday night, however, it went knee-high throughout the bottom floor.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.

When the sisters saw water entering their house, Dilley said they began carrying pictures, important papers and small furniture to the second floor.

At about 4 a.m., 30 minutes after the went to bed, Dilley said they heard two men calling from downstairs, asking if anyone was inside the house.

“They told us to get a change of clothes, that we had two minutes because they had to rescue other people, too,” she said.

When they got downstairs, Dilley said they stepped directly onto a rescue boat.

“It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before,” Dilley said.

The boat took them to the end of the street, where they were placed on a van, which then headed for a motel off of Airport Road.

Halfway to the motel, however, Dilley said the driver of the van received radio notification that the boat they had just been on had capsized and that one of the rescuers had been swept under water and was missing.

Dilley said they then went back to the scene so the driver could assist in the search for the rescuer.

As of Sunday night, the Glasgow Volunteer firefighter was still missing. Dilley said she is thankful that she and her sister made it off the boat before it capsized, but said she cannot stop thinking about the missing volunteer.

“I wonder which one it was,” she said, explaining that one in particular had shaken her hand and wished her luck. “They were all fantastic, really nice guys.”

- - -

On Sunday, workers removed carpeting and were drying the hardwood floors in the home Dilley and her sister own.

Although there is much work to be done, Dilley said things will be “OK.”

“We’ll get it all cleaned up sooner or later,” she said. “It could have been a lot worse.”

Life is less certain for the Blazers however, as they don’t yet know if they will return to their rental house.

Sunday, the family returned to the home to pick up clothes before heading back to Stacey’s dad’s. Biscuit, who rode out the flood on the living room couch and Buster, the big family cat who stayed calmly on the top bunk in the boys’ room, will stay with a relative for a while.

The family did not have renter’s insurance on their home but Stacey said the most important thing is not what was lost, but instead what was saved.

“The most important thing is that we’re all OK,” she said. “You can replace possessions, but not each other.”

— E-mail: mjames@register-herald.com

Text Only
Today's Front Page
  • Classic stars Bon Jovi, Toby Keith, Rod Stewart, Lionel Richie headline 2012 Greenbrier Classic concert series

    Just two years into a six-year contract, The Greenbrier Classic took the coveted “Best in Class Tournament on the PGA TOUR” award in 2011, a distinction given by the PGA TOUR itself.

    February 11, 2012 1 Photo

  • Bill would crack down on ‘sexting’ by minors

    Texting is one area of major concern for West Virginia legislators.
    Now comes another one in the burgeoning cyber world that is gaining its share of attention: sexting.

    February 11, 2012

  • Protection sought for Scouts’ tax-exempt status

    As the Boy Scouts of America move closer to a national festival, a southern West Virginia lawmaker is moving to protect the organization’s tax-exempt status.

    February 11, 2012

  • Snow Plow NWS issues winter weather warnings, advisories through Sunday

    Winter weather is here at last, bringing with it up to 8 inches of snow this weekend in some parts of southern West Virginia, according to the National Weather Service.

    February 11, 2012 1 Photo

  • Snow Plow NWS issues winter weather warnings, advisories

    Winter weather is here at last, bringing with it up to 8 inches of snow in some parts of southern West Virginia, according to the National Weather Service.

    February 10, 2012 1 Photo

  • Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart, Lionel Richie, Toby Keith music headliners for The Greenbrier Classic

    Bon Jovi, Rod Stewart with special guest Lionel Richie, and Toby Keith will headline the musical entertainment card for the 2012 Greenbrier Classic.
    Keith will perform on Wednesday, July 4 while Stewart and Richie are scheduled for Friday, July 6. Bon Jovi will wrap up the concert series on Saturday, July 7.
    For more information see Saturday’s edition of The Register-Herald.

    February 10, 2012

  • act Hundreds of students attend ACT career fair

    The Academy of Careers and Technology celebrated National Career Technical Education Month this week with a career fair ending today.
    Academy Principal Charles Pack explained that more than 600 Raleigh County students were scheduled to visit the facility between Feb. 6 and Feb. 10 to view interactive displays and learn about the educational opportunities available through career and technical training.

    February 10, 2012 1 Photo

  • Support grows for texting ban

    You can count House Judiciary Chairman Tim Miley among lawmakers who favor making texting while driving a primary offense.
    And his committee now holds the key to a Senate bill that would outlaw the practice, deemed universally dangerous by professional drivers, and by those who make and enforce the laws.

    February 10, 2012

  • Bill looks to revamp teacher evaluations

    West Virginia is considering expanding a teacher evaluation pilot program in order to seek a waiver from the constraints of a federal education law.
    The House Education Committee advanced a bill Thursday that would require all schools in the state to use the new teacher evaluation system by the 2013-2014 school year.
    The pilot program is in its first year and just 25 schools are participating, prompting questions whether it is too soon to take the program statewide.

    February 10, 2012

  • Pugh puts trust in trustees

    From the vantage point of his office across the street from the Mountain State University campus, Beckley Mayor Emmett Pugh said he has seen the school grow over the years.
    In the early 1990s, he said, it was a small two-year junior college and was nearly bankrupt.
    “Today they are a prime part of our economic development puzzle here in the city. They provide a lot of jobs and a very needed product — higher education — and I think they do a great job,” Pugh said.

    February 10, 2012