MAN — Shirley Adkins was just 25 years old when, on February 26, 1972, the Buffalo Creek Flood destroyed nearly everything she held dear..

At least 125 people were killed when the Pittston Coal earthen slurry dam broke, unleashing millions of gallons of black wastewater onto the residents of the tiny Buffalo Creek valley. More than 4,000 were left homeless and lives were changed forever.

Adkins lost her husband, David, and two children, David II, who was four years old, and daughter, Dorinda, who was just 3 months old.

Adkins, who is now 63, still vividly recalls that horrible day 38 years ago.

"We lived at Lorado in a little coal company house just above the old Lorado Grade school, in what they called Upper Lorado just above the railroad tracks,” Adkins said. “I got up early that morning and David went to work but returned home because they didn't have enough men to work. His sister, Gladys, came over and said they were expecting flood water where the dam was. We joked about it because I had lived in Pike County, Ky., on the Big Sandy River growing up and when water got up we had time to get out. My grandmother's house flooded in 1957.”

Adkins said her husband took a bath, then word came that the dam had burst and the family needed to evacuate their home.

"I ran to the bathroom and told David,” Adkins said. “I changed clothes, got little David’s glasses, fixed the baby a bottle and then picked up the telephone to call David's brother at Taplin to warn them and the phone was dead. I had my daughter and David had our son. We started out the door and we looked up the road and it looked like a tidal wave. The water was over the houses, there was an alley and creek and row of houses and we couldn't get behind there because of the creek. So I suggested lying on the floor at first, then our house got pushed, the first thing was our front porch was taken away.

"We had a picture window, I was afraid it was going to break, so we got on the back of a chair,” Adkins continued. “We then heard the paneling on the walls popping and the house started crushing — then it starting filling up with water. Our little boy said 'Help me, daddy!'”

Adkins had her daughter in her arms as they were rushed down the raging current, but the baby girl was ripped away from her mother and into the water.

"I saw the water splashing on up on David,” Adkins said. “The next thing I knew I was about half a mile down the road and when I came to, I was going under the bridge at Little Italy, the bottom bridge. My head was being crushed. I tilted my head back so I wouldn't swallow water. I blacked out then I awoke. Something had hit my leg. There was so much debris — very thick in the water. I then climbed on a mattress. I had my daughter with me and that's when I lost her and she was never found. I was in the creek water it was running fast."

Adkins said she sat on the mattress and saw people on the side of the banks.

"Another little boy about six or eight years old was ahead of me on another mattress," she said.

"I thought it was over with and that I was in shock. I came to a train trestle bridge between Lundale and Stowe. I was trying to plot, do I try to get off at the trestle? I could not swim, I was going to grasp the trestle then I thought might be worst."

When she went around a curve she got close enough to the bank and jumped off.

“And that was the last time I saw the little boy,” she said.

"I got off near the Long Eagle Store, and started walking back up hollow and a family stopped and picked me up in there car," she said. "I kept saying 'Get to higher ground.’ We went to the Fox's home up on Crites Hill near the Crites Church, which was where Bill and Stella Fox lived. They took me there and Mrs. Fox covered me up and she even laid her body on me trying to get me warm. Later that evening, my dad came down there from Lorado. He had searched for us up and down creek and finally found me at the Fox's home. You feel guilty because you survive, but my dad is a minister and he said it was God's plan.

“My neighbors, a family of six, were all lost in the flood. I remember the young little Albright baby that got out alive. They found my husband the same day and my son four days later and never found my daughter. We buried them the following Saturday.

“They couldn’t open the caskets, but there was so many people at the funeral home. My husband’s wallet was returned to me, but his clothes were torn off when he was found. My clothes were just torn. After the flood, we move to Crooksville, Ohio. I remarried three years later and had a son in 1979 and named him Ryan. He is now 31. I married Timothy Deavers and we now live at Fairdale in Raleigh County. The Buffalo Creek flood is a tragedy that will always be with you.”