WOWK 13 News

Campbells Creek community comes together to help elderly couple

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK) — For more than four decades, Stephen and Patty Edens have lived in the Campbells Creek area of Kanawha County.

“We’ve never had anything close to this before,” Stephen Edens said.

On Monday, they awoke panicked as floodwaters rushed through their yards, destroying everything in sight.

“Of course, we thought everything was gone,” Stephen Edens said. “We even thought the house would be gone.”

He said things in the garage were not spared, and their home was salvaged from flood waters, but only by inches.

“Matter of fact, it was probably the hardest rain I’ve ever seen,” Stephen Edens said.

As he recalled the events, he said the only bridge to their home was covered in so much debris that not even rescue crews could get to them.

“Like I said, they were in panic mode because my mom and dad are elderly, and of course there’s only one way out, and that’s across this bridge, and it was completely covered with debris and things,” said Anita Carfagna, daughter of Stephen and Patty Edens.

Just as fast as the floodwaters came, so did the people rushing in to help, once they could reach the home on Point Lick drive.

“It started going down, and all these wonderful people showed up,” Stephen Edens said. “So, it’s great to have neighbors like this. I mean it’s just amazing actually.”

One of their neighbors, Terena Bryant-Ratliff, has lived there for 18 years. She said she was among 30 other people who helped the elderly couple.

“We emptied out their garage, had to take everything out,” Bryant-Ratliff said. “I think it’s amazing we’re not only cleaning it up and making it look a little better, we’re cleaning it up and making it look like it used to.”

Carfagna was overwhelmed by the community’s response. She said, “A lot of this is our family, but then the neighbors, you know, we don’t even have to make a phone call, they just come out and they just help.”

Knowing that what was lost can be replaced, the Edens are grateful, but most of all humbled.

“Even though it’s a bad situation, it’s also very humbling as well because of all the support and help that we have,” Carfagna said.