CAMDEN-ON-GAULEY, W.Va. - Like more than 100 business owners throughout the state, Mark Adkins finds himself trying to replace and rebuild years of hard work and investment as a result of last month's flooding.
The Nicholas County business owner has had to contend with mud and debris strewn across his property, ruined and missing inventory and severe structural damage to several of his buildings.
But unlike most other flood-damaged businesses, Adkins Oil is recovering from more than one force of nature.
As Adkins lay in a hospital on June 23, his business - a garage, convenience station, automotive parts store and commercial oil distribution center just north of Craigsville - was enveloped by flood waters and then engulfed by a raging oil and gas fire that left emergency crews unable to do anything but watch.
Videos from that night show the well-known area business, located next to the Gauley River and Strouds Creek, swamped by at least four feet of water, as a burning pool of petroleum spread across the surface. Flames leapt from the water, igniting the convenience store, garage and accompanying storage sheds.
The inferno threw off overwhelming heat, bystanders said, as the flames silhouetted the partially-submerged gas pumps and the nearby guardrails alongside W.Va. 20. In the nearby town of Camden-on-Gauley, residents heard explosions as the flames tinted the night sky orange and their own homes were submerged by the rising river.
This week, Adkins, 57, sat in his truck amid what was left of the business that he started 36 years ago with nothing more than a small store and a gravel parking lot.
The smoldering remains of the store, which had recently been renovated, had already been hauled away. The business's industrial oil and gas storage tanks were piled up across the road. What was left of the gas pumps and garage were charred above four feet - a clear indication of where the water ended and the flames began.
Behind the unburnt automotive parts store, at least six large Mack trucks that had been used for the delivery business were melted down. Sheet metal from the destroyed buildings was wrapped around what was left.
The blackened steel of several new Husqvarna riding lawnmowers that were piled up nearby was already beginning to rust. Only one of the mowers escaped the flames.
Nobody on the scene that night knew exactly what started fire, but Adkins has a theory. "God," he said, as he watched an excavator load the twisted sheet metal into a dump truck.
In total, Adkins estimates he lost more than $8 million due to the flaming eddy of water that hit his business. Even with the surviving parts store, Joe Mollohan, an employee of 22 years, said they were estimating an inventory loss between $400,000 and $500,000.
Adkins, who also had a parts store in nearby Richwood that was flooded, said he is going to try to rebuild, but with an already troubled economy, he expects an uphill battle. In recent years, other oil distribution and parts businesses like his have shut down, he said, unable to profit in the depressed region.
"I'm the last one. The rest of them have gone broke," Adkins said. "I should have quit, but I haven't."
The plan is to get the parts store up and running by the end of the fall, but with the federal government only able to offer loans to affected business, Adkins said he and his employees will have to do it on their own. He still has operating parts stores in Lewisburg, Ansted, Nettie and Webster Springs.
"We're gonna have to see what comes out of it financially," he said. "We're just going to have to throw our dog in the fight and see if they can win."
The loss of the convenience store in particular is already being felt by the people in Camden-on-Gauley. The business may have been two miles away, across the Nicholas-Webster county line, but Lisa Cutlip, the mayor of Camden-on-Gauley, said it was the only place for people to shop that was within walking distance.
On Thursday, Cutlip was busy outside the mayor's office on Main Street, where clothes, water and other supplies were piled up. She was helping to distribute meals to the people of her town.
In recent days, Cutlip said she has forgot at times that Adkins' store isn't there anymore. She now has to send people to Craigsville, or as far away as Summersville, if they need something.
"Even though it was outside the city limits, it was our store," she said. "That was it. It's gone now."
It's one more example of how the loss of small businesses are expounding the problems of the rural communities that are trying to rebuild.
The first home in Camden-on-Gauley was demolished this week, and more are expected to be town down in the days to come. One home that was still standing had a message spray painted on the siding. It read: "Please do tear down."
People in town have worked together during the cleanup process, but, like Adkins, the immediate outlook for residents is still bleak.
"This disaster is going to take years to fix," Cutlip said.
Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4814 or follow @andy_ed_brown on Twitter.