Photo by Eric Ayres Stronger Together – a Community Gathering brought a variety of local resources together to the Valley Grove Volunteer Fire Department on Thursday night ahead of the one-year anniversary of the tragic June 14, 2025 flood. From left are Renee Lucas with Youth Services System; Taylor Neudling with Aetna Better Health of WV; Kayla Straight, program director with NAMI; Dr. Amanda White with ADW Catalyst Strategies; Claudia Raymer McKay, executive director of Ohio County Family Resource Network; Linda Reeves of Child Care Resource Center; and Julie Gomez, executive director of NAMI Greater Wheeling.

WHEELING — The one-year anniversary of the deadly flood that devastated Triadelphia and Valley Grove last June will soon be observed, and community partners are helping residents become mentally and emotionally prepared to deal with difficult memories of the tragedy that may be revisited.

The June 14 flood along Little Wheeling Creek in Ohio County claimed the lives of nine people and left a path of destruction through neighborhoods along National Road through Triadelphia, Valley Grove and into Elm Grove in Wheeling. Homes, businesses, infrastructure and property were destroyed, leaving many of those impacted with years of work ahead to rebuild their lives.

On Thursday night, agencies came together with residents, first responders and others whose lives were affected by the flood. The group hosted Stronger Together — a Community Gathering at the Valley Grove Volunteer Fire Department to help provide a foundation for support in the wake of stressful times.

“We know the anniversary is coming, and we wanted to do something that really focused on helping the residents of Valley Grove and Triadelphia,” said Claudia Raymer McKay, executive director of the Ohio County Family Resource Network, which partnered with ADW Catalyst Strategies and NAMI West Virginia to host the event.

Organizers did not want to hold the gathering during the week of the flood anniversary, as other ceremonies and observations are being planned.

“But leading up to it, we wanted to offer some ways that the community can — in a trauma-informed way — help their neighbors and leave with tools for supporting themselves, their families and others,” McKay said. “Everyone attending tonight will actually leave with a box of items that will help them through processing stress.”

Dozens of people of all ages attended the gathering. Everyone from adults to children were given an opportunity to learn strategies for coping with post-flood situations. Many of the people are survivors of a deadly natural disaster. Some have been impacted more than others, but all have dealt with and will continue to manage stress related to the flood.

“Each person experienced trauma in a different way, and whether they’re here tonight for themselves or for their neighbor, we wanted to bring everybody together and bring community partners together and provide them with the expertise, give them the tools to implement real-life strategies that can help them,” she said. “As we do creep up to the anniversary and as we do start to see the memorials going up, we want to just help people the best way we know how, and that’s always going to be by working together.”

Dr. Amanda White of ADW Catalyst Strategies, who helped organize the event, said it is always good to follow up with those impacted by these types of challenges and to keep checking in with even those who may seem to be coping well. A mental health professional, White said that following events like a natural disaster, it may seem people are always there to help, and then suddenly one day, they are not.

“Somebody may have thought ‘Oh, I’m OK’ a short time after the flood, and then it might be a rainy day today, and that suddenly triggers traumatic symptoms for them,” White said.

The team on hand provided items that used all five senses — sight, taste, sound, smell and touch — to aid coping skills. Those on hand were also taught movement and action plans as strategic tools to deal with resurfacing stress. Youth Services System (YSS) and the Child Care Resource Center led a children’s group to help equip them with useful strategies as well.

“These are real things you can do every day,” McKay said. “You don’t really know what might trigger a stress response. But we want to try to provide the tools to deal with it in a healthy way and model good coping for the community.

“There should be no stigma around mental health. Having trauma from a natural disaster is not a weakness — it’s being human.”

McKay said many flood survivors understandably get nervous every time it rains for hours and the creek starts getting high. She said they want them to be armed with these strategic tools for dealing with these stress triggers and to feel confident using them.

She added that with the anniversary of the flood approaching, it’s important to listen to the ongoing needs of those who were impacted.

“It’s going to take years,” McKay said, noting that there are broken things that need to be rebuilt beyond the obvious things that can be seen.

Bruce Charlton of Triadelphia was one of the many impacted residents who attended Thursday night’s gathering. Flood waters devastated multiple homes in his family.

“My parent’s house was taken out, and my house was taken out down in Middle Creek,” Charlton said.

The water engulfed the finished basement at his residence and took even more property, Charlton noted.

“It got probably about six inches from the first floor,” he said. “We’re still at the same house. The church donated drywall and two-by-fours, but I still haven’t got it up yet. We’re still working on it. Actually I was working in my carport today, and I went through a container I had saved, and here it still had a bunch of creek water in it.”

Even after a year, Charlton said he and many others in the Triadelphia and Valley Grove area are experiencing the aftermath of the flood. He said at times he goes to look for something, forgetting that it, too, was lost in the flood.

“We’re still surviving … one day at a time,” he said. “We’re just hanging in there day by day and hoping everything gets better. It’s been traumatic. We’re still dealing with it.”

Charlton said they have been thinking about the anniversary of the flood that is coming up soon, but they have not thought of what they might do on that day.

Many flood survivors may likely attend memorial observances on the weekend of the anniversary, while others may stay home and do their best to suppress painful memories it may bring.

“We just hope it don’t rain,” Charlton said.