Friday, February 25, 2000
Residents in flood area mop up
Red Cross brings kits
BY WALT SCHAEFER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Dolores and Paul Wilson smoked cigarettes Thursday as they sat in chairs on their porch on Wenner Street on an unseasonably mild day in Cincinnati's East End — a block from the receding Ohio River.
“The water, it got in a corner of the basement,” said Mr. Wilson, 67. “A little more and it could have got to our furnace. We was lucky.”
“It won't take but a couple hours of cleanup, if that,” said Mrs. Wilson, 66.
The Wilsons, with 36 years of life with a view of the Ohio River, are veterans of floods.
“This was nothing,” Mrs. Wilson said.
“In '97, it got up to the windowsill on the porch. And 1964 — that was the worst — it got about halfway up the window. It was right at the (fireplace) mantel in the living room.
“But, the Red Cross, they come anytime there's high water. They give us kits with disinfectants, brooms — a push broom and a regular broom — mops, a bucket — everything you need to clean up.”
Sean Townsley, communications specialist for the American Red Cross, said volunteers distributed 55 cleanup kits to families living in 40 buildings in the East End and California neighborhoods Thursday. No one expressed a need for shelter or assistance from any social service agency. Several kits were distributed to homes that experienced sewer back ups, rather than river flooding, he said.
“The only thing we heard was a lady who wanted some help putting her furnace back together,” volunteer Phyllis Kugler said.
The woman had moved the furnace from her basement as a precaution.
“Everyone seems to have heeded the warnings from the previous (1997) flood,” Ms. Kugler said. “A lot of people have moved their furnaces up (to the first floor from basements). Most have flood insurance, now.”
The National Weather Service at Wilmington, Ohio, reported the Ohio River crested at midnight Monday at 54.5 feet. It was at 46.6 feet at 1 p.m. Thursday and falling. Official flood stage is 52 feet.
Bob Armstrong, disaster specialist for the Red Cross, said there is no way to predict what people need after a flood until neighborhoods are visited and residents interviewed.
“I'm not surprised that more people haven't called us. They have been through floods before and have become self-sufficient in how to handle them,” Mr. Armstrong said. “They have created their own disaster plans, which is excellent.”
Willie Charles, 70, a neighbor of the Wilsons, said about 2 inches of water seeped into his basement.
“Back in 1997, I had 21/2 feet of water in the first floor. It's a dirt basement so I'll let it dry out a few days before I clean it out.
“I been here 20 years, and I've never thought of a reason to leave. I love that river. It's not always the case, but this time it loved us back.”
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