BAISDEN — Residents in flooded areas of Mingo County were trying their best to dig out of the muck and mire Sunday, a day after a flash flood damaged 2,500 homes and destroyed 500 bridges.

Gov. Joe Manchin and Congressman Nick Rahall toured the flooded areas of Matewan, Varney, Pie, Musick, Delbarton and Gilbert yesterday and Mingo County officials were out all day and night Saturday and Sunday working with flood victims and delivering water and cleaning supplies.

Mingo County Circuit Judge Michael Thornsbury led Manchin and Rahall on a tour of Rutherford Hollow at North Matewan, where the road was still under a heavy stream of water.

The group of officials, which included Mingo County Commission President John Mark Hubbard, Commissioner Greg “Hootie” Smith, Mingo Prosecutor Michael Sparks, Mingo County Emergency Management Director Jarrod Fletcher and Mingo Assessor Ramona Mahon, then traveled by convoy through Varney, Pie and Musick to Gilbert’s Larry Joe Harless Center, where they held a joint press conference to assure flood victims that help is on the way.

“It’s just really heartbreaking to see the devastation and to see people suffering and struggling, people of modest means who have lost everything,” Smith said. “But, it is uplifting to see what good spirits they are in and their thankfulness. I look forward to rolling up my sleeves and helping everyone as a team effort to assist our citizens pull out of this devastation.”

Commissioner Smith and Assessor Mahon traveled through the Gilbert Creek area of Baisden, offering to bring water and cleaning supplies to residents affected by the flooding.

And those were many.

According to Thornsbury, 100 bridges on Gilbert Creek were completed destroyed, leaving many Baisden residents stranded. The road through Gilbert Creek was also wiped out in several places, leaving only a few feet of pavement over which vehicles could still travel.

Bo Ellis of Baisden was working on his flood-ravaged property late Sunday evening. Ellis said he lost nearly everything to the raging flood waters, but considered himself in better shape than other victims.

“It’s a pure mess, but we’re better off than a lot of people,” Ellis said. “We’re a lot better off than the people on down in Gilbert are.”

Gilbert Mayor Vivian Livingood said she got a surprise when she was called and asked to use Gilbert Town Hall as a shelter for flood victims.

“We’ve never seen this kind of damage. We’ve been flooded before, but never like this,” Livingood said. “I got the phone call asking to use town hall and I didn’t even know the flooding was happening. I asked ‘For what?’ and they said for flood evacuees and all of a sudden I stepped into water where we were getting flooded. We got flooded, but nothing like so many other people. I just feel so bad. My sister, Maricia White, lost everything. She lost every single item in her house.

“We’re just at a standstill. It’s frustrating, because you don’t know what to do when you’ve never dealt with this before. Thank God the people are so resourceful and so willing to help you. We called an emergency town council meeting immediately and took all of the names of every resident in town and divided them up and physically knocked on their doors and tried to ask what had happened to them and to find out what they need.”

Livingood said she has a list of flooded businesses to give to the National Guard and at least 10 bridges were destroyed in town.

“We have no water to start cleaning up,” Livingood said. “Our water system was shut down. We have it patched right now, but we need major assistance to get the water back on.”

Nicolle Hall of North Matewan said she and her family escaped through the water to safety.

“We swam out the back from the back of the house,” Hall said. “What woke us up was the dog. My youngest son, T.J., was trying to get the dog loose and we brought the dog up and when we went back to get our four-wheeler and stuff out, we had to swim. It was dangerous, but what do you do? My husband, Harley, carried my mom out of the house. We were stranded.”

Kenny Cox and Greg Collins, both neighbors of Harley and Nicolle Hall, lost their homes to the flooding.

Delegate Harry Keith White said Gilbert Elementary School suffered heavy damage and may not open the rest of the school year.

“They had some people up there working on it (Sunday). They had an endloader trying to move some of the mud away from the doors so they could let the water roll out of there. Everything on the lower floor had two or three feet of water in it, plus all the mud and everything. It’s going to take a lot of work to get it back open. I would seriously doubt if Gilbert K-6 Elementary will open the rest of the school year. And Gilbert High School had water in it and it looks bad, too. Gilbert Creek is bad and the town of Gilbert from the upper end to where Gilbert Creek runs into the Guyadotte River, most all the restaurants and homes had water in them. I’m old enough to remember the flood of 1963 and that was the last time we saw water come down Route 52 into Gilbert, but, this time, there was probably four or five feet of water that came down Route 52. It’s a mess.”

Gov. Manchin said the force of the water devastated the area.

“I’ve lived through floods and a flash flood is different than the creek rising,” Manchin said. “The infrastructure has to be put back as quickly as possible. We have a lot of people who can’t live in what homes they have left. We’ve got FEMA here and I think you’ll see quick action. We’re going to work as hard as we can, as quickly as we can. This is as bad as you’re going to see. This is about as bad as I’ve ever seen. We’ve got to, as a state and federal government, put it back and do it right. We’ve got to get the roads and the banks shored up. The water completely washed things away. This is so devastating.”

Congressman Nick Rahall said he will be looking into the possibility of some stimulus money being used to help repair the infrastructure.

“This is devastation,” Rahall said. “We have to get the longterm help to people. These people have been through a lot. It’s heartbreaking what has happened here. (Getting stimulus money) is something we will be exploring through the appropriate agencies because there is still stimulus money out there. These are certainly shovel-ready projects that can be up and running within the time frame of the stimulus so that is an avenue we will be pursuing with every agency. We’ve seen a lot of highway damage today, a tremendous amount. We’re going to be exploring every avenue we can to help these people get back on their feet.”

Judge Thornsbury said southern Mingo County has been devastated and Gov. Manchin and others have responded in great way.

“There’s a tremendous task ahead,” Thornsbury said. “We thought the 2004 flood was devastating, but this is four or five times worse. In fact, I think it is far worse than the 1977 flood and as devastating to Mingo County as the 1963 flood.”

Hubbard said Mingo Countians have been helping each other recover.

“We cannot say enough about our people,” Hubbard said.

“The greatest asset of Mingo County is the people of Mingo County. This is something that is not going to be fixed quickly. It’s a process, but we’re here, we’ll see it through and make it better.”

Schools were closed in Mingo County today due to flooding. It was not known when schools would reopen.

Man High School’s prom, which had been scheduled for Saturday night, has been moved to Friday night at the Larry Joe Harless Center in Gilbert. Those in need of flodo assistance can call 304-235-8551 for help.