July 1, 2006
 
PARALLEL UNIVERSE: Mother (Nature) Doesn’t Like Us Very Much
 
By David M. Kinchen

 
Editor, Huntington News Network
 

Sidney, NY

Hinton, WV (HNN) – Let’s face it: Mother Nature doesn’t like us very much. The storms this past week all the way from upstate New York to Virginia and West Virginia once again prove that to me.
 
She wants us off her riverbanks, as the graphic photos of the town of Sidney, NY, along the Susquehanna River north of devastated Binghamton, NY show. Sidney is just a bit bigger than Hinton, with 4,000 people to our 2,700. The scenes of flooded areas in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and elsewhere remind this observer that people who live along watersheds should expect to be flooded.
 
Except for what is often belittled as one of the most backward states in the Nation, my home for the last 14 years, West Virginia. Specifically Hinton, which I chose for four reasons: Scenic beauty, affordable housing, Amtrak service and no flooding.
 
Not a rainy day goes by that I don’t thank the powers that be that there were no environmentalists in the 1940s, when Bluestone Dam was conceived and built. That the Sierra Club was restricted to hiking in the Sierra mountain range in California. Folks in the Susquehanna and Delaware River basins lack the water controlling dams like those in West Virginia – and California, too. Don’t forget, Californians: Without the Shasta and the Folsom dams – to name just two in the Golden State – Sacramento and much of central California would be under water.
 

Bluestone Lake and Dam

Had there been “environmentalists”, the proposal to dam the “scenic and wild” New River would have died aborning. When was the last dam built? Forty years ago, fifty years ago? Bluestone Dam was completed in 1952 and proved its worth once again this past week.
 
Not only in Summers and Raleigh and Fayette counties, but also in Kanawha County residents of southern West Virginia should be grateful for the dam and its power to reduce flood danger. Absent the Bluestone Dam – and the Summersville Dam on the Gauley River in Nicholas County -- the Kanawha River would have flooded its banks in the greater Charleston area.
 
Hinton is particularly vulnerable because of the three rivers that converge here: The Greenbrier, New and Bluestone all begin in higher elevation areas than our approximately 1,400 feet above sea level. This contributes to the force of water rushing down the hillsides into the rivers. I’ve seen historic pictures of flooding in Avis and Bellepoint before the dam was completed. They look just like the pictures from Sydney, NY, Easton, PA, Binghamton, NY and Wilkes-Barre, PA, where more than 200,000 people were evacuated.
 
As for damaging the environment, I point to the areas of the New River just past our wonderful dam, where some of the best fishing in the Mountain State – with several records – is on tap. Tourism is a vital part of our county’s economy – and the economy of the state as a whole. Bluestone Lake, behind the dam, is a popular tourist attraction. This is also the case with recreational lakes created in flood-prone states like Tennessee and Kentucky. You can joke all you want about T-shirts from Tennessee with the slogan: “Paddle faster! I hear banjo music” but tourist dollars are important in all the areas affected by this week’s deluge.
 
News reports are still sketchy about the dollar cost of the flooding north of us, but the estimates of about $100 million given by NY Gov. George Pataki sound a little on the meager side to me. He called the flooding in his state’s southern tier of counties – Broome, Chenango, Delaware, etc. – “unparalleled devastation.”
 
NJ Gov. Jon S. Corzine said that the destruction reminded him of flooding in April 2005 that caused $30 million in damage.
 
Maybe Mother Nature has reasons to hate humankind, but I think it’s about time we either consider proper flood control measures – including dams – or abandon living along rivers. The latter is obviously unthinkable, so the former should be considered.