“Barely a trickle”.
That’s how the mayor of Valley Grove describes how Little Wheeling Creek usually flows through his town of about 250 residents.
That wasn’t the case, of course, about a year ago when portions of Ohio County were pounded with multiple inches of rain in a short amount of time, and Valley Grove, Triadelphia, and parts of Elm Grove were flooded worse than most residents remember. Nine individuals perished, too, and homes, vehicles, and everything not tied or weighted down were swept away as far as the Ohio River.
This Saturday at 11 a.m., a memorial for the victims will be unveiled and dedicated at the Triadelphia United Methodist Church, and on Sunday, Kleeh will welcome residents, first responders, and volunteers to Valley Grove’s Picnic at 1 p.m. at the Community Park.
“I remember after there was some time that had passed after the flooding when we didn’t get any rain for about two weeks, and I looked down at (Little Wheeling Creek) and there was barely a trickle that couldn’t have been a foot wide,” he recalled. “Just two weeks earlier, and it was more than nine feet deep and a whole different story.
“A lot of the flooding started in Valley Grove because the rain hit up above us in Ohio County. It all flowed down the hills, hit us, but then it did so much damage downstream,” Kleeh said. “We had a lot of residents who had their basements full, but they were out helping others because of how bad it was in Triadelphia and in parts of Elm Grove.”
Kleeh was away on Father’s Day weekend so he wasn’t immediately aware that a severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Ohio County before, according to the National Weather Service, between 2.5 and 4.5 inches of rain fell during a two-hour stretch of time.
While nine individuals ranging from 83 to 3 years old were killed, first responders rescued more than 100 individuals who were found clinging to trees and fences and telephone poles along U.S. Route 40.
“I can still remember very clearly the first time I drove around, and I remember the moment I thought to myself, ‘You’re the mayor. You have to do something.’,” Kleeh said. “And I remember not knowing where to start. I had no idea. I don’t think anyone did.
“We just kind of looked around at first, not believing our eyes. No one had ever seen anything like it,” he recalled. “All of a sudden, it was like 500 pounds had fallen on everyone’s shoulders. It was just very emotional. That’s all I can say. It was emotional.”
Tears and Fears
The residents immediately looked to their mayor, a man who had just been elected – again – for his fifth term in office.
Officials with the Ohio County Emergency Management were calling, and so were the Governor’s Office, the sheriff’s department, and every other first responder agency in the region.
And Chad Kleeh’s head was spinning.
“But after about a week, I got into a routine with all of the volunteers, the county officials, and the first responders, and one night I sat down on my porch with my girlfriend, and I just melted. I remember her telling me to let it out,” said Kleeh, now in his 20th year as Valley Grove’s mayor. “She said to me, ‘I don’t know how you’ve been holding it up this long. You’ve been strong for everybody.’ But that’s just what the mayor is supposed to do, right?
“So yeah, I cried like a baby that night,” he explained. “I’m sure everyone involved had that moment, too, because it seems like once we did one thing, there were always 10 more things to do for people. There were cars in the creek, and furnaces and hot water tanks to rip out, and the meetings and the Governor and everything else. It was the toughest time.”
But then a team of representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the federal Small Business Administration (SBA) landed in Ohio County, and so did volunteers with national Christian groups known as Samaritan’s Purse and Eight Days of Hope.
And progress was finally visible, and it’s continued since.
“It’s good to see so many of our residents have been able to get back into their houses after their basements and first floors got hit with the flooding because I really thought it would take much longer,” Kleeh said. “But, in the beginning, I don’t think anyone anticipated the arrivals of the national Christian groups that came in to help. Those folks were incredible, and they joined in with all of the volunteers from Wheeling and from around the valley.
“We’re all just so thankful,” the Valley Grove mayor said. “We’ll never be back to normal, especially in Triadelphia, but we’re far ahead of where I thought we’d be after a year. At first, I had no idea how we were going to deal with everything.”
In September 2004, Ohio County was hit with flash flooding along Big Wheeling Creek, and hundreds of properties were damaged between the Elm Grove and Fulton neighborhoods. Mounds of debris bordered roadways for weeks, and FEMA, the SBA, and the Red Cross were in the Wheeling area for a few months.
But there wasn’t the death, the destruction, or the devastation.
“By far, this is the worst tragedy I have ever seen happen here in this area. There’s nothing I’ve seen during my lifetime that comes close to comparing,” Kleeh said. “We’ve had floods in Valley Grove before, but we’ve never lost lives like we did last year.
“I guess I was very lucky not to see a tragedy like that until I was 48 years old, but I wish I had never seen it at all,” he said. “I cried when I saw our communities destroyed. It was overwhelming.”
