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She lost the trailer where she lived for 30 years. She lost her wheelchair, her medicine and her best friend, a little Chihuahua named Frankie.
As the deluge swamped southeast
Hundreds of others were stranded, too.
Teams across the state rescued people from second-story windows, the hoods of cars, the tops of trees. They saved Dunford from her flooded trailer in the middle of the night, just as the water started licking her shoulders. More than 100 homes were destroyed, some torn from their foundations and carried away. The roaring water uprooted trees, tore down bridges, washed away roads and knocked out power and phone service to thousands of homes. Families were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Dunford's tiny town of
"This was so violent," said
Pennington's crew searched into the night for people stranded. They waded through the swift current, sometimes up to their chests, to pull people to safety.
They found a 97-year-old woman standing inside her front door, with water rushing up over her porch.
"She said, 'I thought I was all alone,'" he recalled. "And one of the team members says, 'Well honey, you're not alone no more.' And onto his back he put her and grabbed her walker and away we went."
In
A 91-year-old woman took a ride in his bucket. They rescued a family of five with a child in diapers.
Rescue crews went door to door to check on residents, a painstaking task that could stretch into the weekend. Once a residence was checked, a red or orange X' was marked on the home.
About 500 people were stranded at
Two-hundred
One of the dead included a 4-year-old boy who was found about a quarter-mile from where he fell into a creek, which usually runs about ankle deep but rose to about 6 feet when
Local officials in
The rest of the dead have not been identified.
Some of the heaviest rainfall was in
The
On Friday, residents started to pick through the rubble to save what they could.
Dunford was taken to a veterans hospital in
"She got really upset when she realized she doesn't have any underwear, she doesn't have any food, she doesn't have any medicine, she doesn't have anything," Suzer said. "She lives on very modest means. That trailer was her home. She didn't have a lot. And she lost it all."
Galofaro and Schreiner reported from
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
A vehicle makes a wake along the flooded Lower Oakford Ave. Friday, June 24, 2016, in Richwood, W.Va. (Rick Barbero/The Register-Herald-via AP)