First responders launch a boat along a flooded Hal Greer Boulevard as they go to check on residents in Enslow Park on Friday, May 6, 2022, in Huntington.
First responders launch a boat along a flooded Hal Greer Boulevard as they go to check on residents in Enslow Park on Friday, May 6, 2022, in Huntington.
To hear some people in low-lying areas of the Enslow Park neighborhood tell their stories, thereÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s no use investing in a furnace or ductwork when their homes flood. Another flood a few years later will ruin them again.
The autumn rainy season will be upon us soon, and people who live near Fourpole Creek in Enslow Park and elsewhere will keep an eye on the weather forecast so they can prepare for the next big flood.
Local, state and federal government officials are working to ease the cause and effects of the damage. Last week, the Huntington Municipal Development Authority voted to dredge two retention ponds at KineticPark to help reduce flooding.
Bill Fredeking, 66, has lived on Wilson Court in Enslow Park his whole life. He says his house, across from the bridge that welcomes people into the back of the Enslow Park neighborhood, is falling apart. He told The Herald-Dispatch reporter Destiney Dingess he has experienced flooding eight times.
ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œWe never had any floods until they built the access road to the highway,ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ Fredeking told Dingess. ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥œThat was 1970.ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥
That echoed a report issued by Marshall University associate geography professor Anita Walz earlier this year. Her analysis showed the Fourpole Creek watershed has lost part of its capacity to retain storm runoff and that the creek itself is not large enough to handle the increased runoff that development has caused. That development includes the four-lane road from 13th Avenue to Interstate 64, along with KineticPark, Huntington High School and various private developments that may have encroached on natural retention areas in the floodplain.
So, if there is a strong possibility that the state of West Virginia helped create this problem by building the four-lane highway, itÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s reasonable to expect our elected officials to expedite the process of raising the flood-prone houses in Enslow Park or else buying them, demolishing them and forbidding any future construction on those lots. At the same time, it could restore Fourpole Creek to a more natural channel and remove small bridges in Huntington that act as dams.
Realistically, thereÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s a problem here. A political one.
West Virginia is a state that is prone to floods. Most of the best places to build houses are in floodplains because much of the topography is too close to vertical to build on. Downpours are frequent, and so are floods. They can be widespread as happened in the Elk River watershed in 2016, or they can be confined to small areas, as happens every few years in Huntington.
It wouldnÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t be easy for a governor to say a local problem in Cabell County has a higher priority than one in Ohio or Pocahontas County, no matter what the cost is to property or lives. While the Fourpole watershed floods often, usually the damage is limited to property. Often, floods elsewhere lead to the loss of life, as happened in both northern and southern West Virginia this year, with at least 12 deaths. More than 20 people died in the Elk River flood. When it comes to property or life in terms of flood mitigation, life must take precedence. In Enslow ParkÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s case, though, flooding is an almost expected event, not a random one.
Also, momentum is important. ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s easy to forget one flood when the next one hits elsewhere.
It canÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™t be denied that the process is slow ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥” often too slow. ItÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s up to elected officials to get the kinks out of this rope and do whatÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥™s needed to reduce the flood hazards in Enslow Park and other places, especially where a previous generation of officials made decisions that caused the hazards.
