Some Buchanan County residents feel the flood could nudge the tightknit but dwindling coal mining community, population 20,000, a little closer to extinction.
The coal-truck mechanic scooped up his 16-year-old son, Nathaniel — unable to walk or talk due to an illness as a newborn — and carried him to a Chevy sedan, parked a few feet higher on a steep driveway. His 27-year-old stepson, Jake, waited there while Stiltner and his wife, Lisa, rounded up all six of the family dogs. The water was chest-deep by the time Lisa came out with the last of them.
No fatalities have been reported despite devastating floods this week that damaged or destroyed about 400 homes or other structures in Buchanan County. But some residents feel the flood could nudge the tightknit but dwindling coal-mining community, population 20,000, a little closer to extinction.Buchanan County’s population shrank by a third over the past 30 years, posting Virginia’s most precipitous decline over that period, according to an analysis by the Virginia Public Access Project.
Donna Keen grew up in the community and has so many friends and family nearby that she constantly sounds car-horn greetings whenever she drives down the twisting Dismal River Road. She expects the flood will drive some away. A close friend from church who lost her home will likely leave rather than rebuild, she said.Billy and Patricia Sturgill weathered the storm without a problem in a two-story house that dates at least to the 1930s.
But just down the hill, water swelled around the double-wide trailer where her sister had just tucked her children, Aiden, 5, and Gaige, 3, into bed. The family fled up the hill to their relatives, then watched as their trailer and some assorted cars floated by.“That concrete slab down yonder, that was their porch,” Damron said Friday, pointing to a spot about a football field away.
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