PAX

    This little community nestled alongside the West Virginia Turnpike and Paint Creek and Packs Branch was flooded not once-on July 8-- but again on Thursday, July 26.

    Though the second flood wasn't as bad as the first, access to the town was cut off, and the BP Station was surrounded by nearly four feet of water Mayor Shirley Roberts was cut off by high water on her own street.

    Eight inches of water had covered the floors at Carol and David Braggs' home on July 8. They had moved their furniture to assumed safety in a metal container in their yard. But on July 26. they had to lug it back to the house and safety. They made it.

    The hills around Pax were mined about a decade ago. The timbering is more recent. About three miles up Packs Branch, we found a new timber job on the side of a mountain across from a church. Much scrub lumber remained, as did piles of waste. The sections of the timber roads closest to the road were eroded, with water still running down.

    Much of the debris from the timber job had landed across the street alongside a church, during Sunday morning services.