Volunteers Pouring In to Assist Communities Ravaged by Floods

Thousands of volunteers pitched in Monday to help residents haul away debris and rinse off layers of mud left by a week of devastating flooding along the Ohio River.

“It’s been fantastic. We’ve had church groups and children’s homes help us out,” said Sharon Thompson, a Red Cross center manager in Radcliffe, Ky., 30 miles southwest of Louisville.

Some residents waded back to muck-filled homes, while others inspected their dwellings by boat, moving slowly over flood waters so the waves would not break their windows and worsen the flooding.

Beer and soda cans, rotten food and dead fish added to the stench of dirty river water in Aurora, downriver from Cincinnati, where members of the Aurora Eagles Lodge had tears in their eyes as they began to clean up.

In Grandview, Ind., Jeff Grose brought his 4-year-old son to look at their century-old home. Justin’s bedroom, decorated with animals and clowns, held nearly 2 feet of water.

As the crest of the Ohio River moved toward well-protected Evansville and the farming communities of western Kentucky, some of the 192 people who evacuated Grandview last week returned.

They were only allowed to look, not move back in, and what they saw included stained walls, soaked furniture and ruined lives.

Twisters and the high water in West Virginia, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee have killed 59 people since March 1. Damage is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Chefs from a contingent of National Guard troops cooked for the two dozen residents of West Point, Ky., unable to make it back into their waterlogged town.