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After experiencing firsthand the devastation that came from the flash floods that crushed their town a little over a year ago, the Triadelphia Town Council recently made a decision that should help spare their neighbors from more catastrophic damage should such a disaster come its way again.
The council adopted an ordinance that would regulate the giant metal storage containers that populate the town, including a requirement that they be anchored in place. Several of those containers could be seen in videos recorded during those fatal floods, as they sailed along through Triadelphia, smacking into whatever may be in their path.
Those torrential flood waters turned those storage units into massive metal missiles, and anything that stood in their path didn't win in the collision. And when those waters receded, those containers were found miles down the creek in parts of Elm Grove. It took months for some of them to be removed.
Triadelphia residents are afraid of what might happen if those containers, if allowed to be left unfastened, would be picked up by floodwaters again.
"We have two heavy storage containers that are going to come back down if water happens to come through there," resident Charity Parsons said. "We live in fear every time it rains."
To the council's credit, they are trying to find a balance between caring for their neighbors and not causing any unreasonable hardship for the businesses that own those storage containers. Business neighbors are still neighbors.
"We're getting everything worked out," Triadelphia Mayor Mary Ann Hess said. "The storage container ordinance is in place, as far as the rules. Right now we are trying to get it all implemented. We'll be making decisions on what's going to happen. If they stay, they will be required to be anchored."
The rest of West Virginia should be watching this process and, when it's over, they should follow Triadelphia's lead. Floods have battered many communities throughout the Mountain State over the last couple of years. To leave these containers unregulated in other areas is to invite serious -- and unnecessary --damage.
In fact, the many municipalities of West Virginia shouldn't need to come up with their own ordinances. The West Virginia Legislature in next year's session should pass a law calling for such containers to be anchored into the ground throughout the state.
We saw what can happen if those storage containers get picked up and float away. Frankly, that's all the evidence lawmakers need to make sure something like that never happens again.