Notebook From The Flood
Flooding along the Ohio River reaches into scores of cities and small towns. A sampling:
Tell City, Ind. - Residents of Tell City thought they would be safe behind a 20-foot-high concrete wall erected after the great flood of 1937 devastated the town.
Their confidence evaporated when water from the swollen Ohio River began gurgling up from the ground next to the wall late Tuesday. As Wednesday wore on, water percolated up as far as 75 feet from the wall.
“Our situation is getting worse, much worse,” Mayor Bill Goffinet said Wednesday afternoon.
Police evacuated part of Tell City’s downtown Wednesday, while school girls, 20 state prison inmates and 60 National Guard soldiers built earthen dikes and rings of sandbags to contain the new bubbling springs.
“The people in the community are well aware of the power of that river,” the mayor said. “It’s a beautiful thing when it behaves itself. But there are not a lot of things that are as disastrous as the river can be. We have a lot of respect for the river. A lot of fear as well.”
The river was expected crest here on Saturday, about 7 below the top of the flood wall.
Falmouth, Ky. - At its peak, the water reached so high only the tops of the golden arches were visible at the local McDonald’s. When the water went down Wednesday, four bodies were found. A coffee-colored muck 2 inches thick coats the streets. “A lot of people say they’re not coming back,” Ed Ward, a police officer said.
Chapmansboro, Tenn. - Gary Ford and his wife abandoned their home Wednesday and moved in with friends. It was his second flood evacuation in 16 years, he said. “My wife ran off and left me in ‘84 and told me where to stick that muddy house. I got a new (wife) this time.”
Cincinnati - Shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard and police drove into Cincinnati’s East End neighborhood pulling a trailer with an armada of rescue boats.
Riverside storage tanks less than a mile away had been weakened by the flood, they told residents. If chemicals in those tanks spill, they said, it could create an ammonia cloud that would blanket the area.
Police went door to door, marking porch posts with yellow chalk to indicate an empty house. If anyone refused to leave, they asked for next of kin.
Charleston, W.Va. - While floodwaters swirled outside, Jean Pritt watched her husband of 16 years slowly, agonizingly succumb to stomach cancer.
Twelve hours later, the waters receded enough to allow neighbors to remove Guy Pritt’s body from their trailer home. Then, Jean Pritt curled up on his empty hospital-style bed, enveloping herself in his fading scent.
Within a few hours, she died of heart failure.
“They did everything together. But I never expected them to die together,” Sandra Leach said of her father and stepmother.
Pritt, 67, a Navy veteran of World War II, worked for 32 years at the True Temper Corp., an ax plant in Charleston. His wife was 57.