The signs of the high water were all around Route 52 from Iaeger to Welch in the weeks after the May 2 flood. Mangled cars tossed on the banks of the Tug Fork, trash hanging from tree branches--a mark of the height of the raging water. But the damage that really grabbed the sightseer was the stretch of houses along Spice Creek just west of the curve in Roderfield.

    Suddenly, there was a string of houses with a foot of rocks and sand in the ground floor and walls and roofs knocked asunder. Bridges were washed away, and gardens were obliterated. Already, the empty houses bore the orange numbers, designating their future demolition.

    Ironically, there was a church across the street from the devastation named the Ark of Safety. It was high enough that it was, indeed, safe. So it became an outpost for the recovery workers and had boxes of bottled water for the residents.

    The flooded area of Roderfield is not on the Tug Fork. This community along Route 52 is on the much smaller Spice Creek, which meets the larger Tug Fork in Roderfield. It seemed odd that so much water could come down the small creek. Local residents have an explanation: timbering. They point to the mountain that separates Roderfield and Premier from Coalwood--they call it Christian Mountain. It's all been timbered, they say.

    And so has the mountain on the north side of Spice Creek, according to the Division of Forestry. Those maps show a timbered  stretch about three miles long and two miles deep on both the east and west sides of Premier.

    Other major land disturbances come from an old mine at the base of Christian Mountain on the south side of Spice Creek. A month after the flood, bulldozers and shovels were still working in there to clean up old coal and erosion from the flood. A huge pipe drained the old mine and ard out into Spice Creek.

        Three years ago, Cathy Patton, a Roderfield resident, went to the Legislature asking for stricter controls on timbering. The bill never got out of committee, and she was told by her delegate that nothing would ever be done about timbering. In 2000, Patton ran an energetic, but losing, race against that delegate. Not one to give up, Patton continued monitoring the timbering jobs in her area. When the logging company blasted on the hillside above the school, Patton called Jim Circle, chief of forestry's Beckley office. He later told her she was the only person who had ever kept him on the phone for an hour.

    Ironically in May, Patton's own home suffered severe flood damage. And her insurance won't even cover the damage. She and her husband had paid flood insurance for 17 years. Now the insurance company is telling her that because it is the basement, it's not covered. She argued that it wasn't the basement, but the living and dining rooms that were on the ground floor of a split-level. After she wrote an article in the Welch newspaper, a number of people called to report similar insurance denials.

    Patton was able to show us several of the timbered areas. One, along Clear Fork is at the base of the mountain over to Coalwood. In fact, in dryer weather, one could drive all the way across the mountain. After the flood, though only timber company vehicles were venturing back into the mountains. A walk up one of the roads revealed several deep gullies carrying runoff from the timbered areas above.