A Clendenin clinic is reopened after flash flooding damaged its building, but it will use generator power for the next four weeks while repairs are made, officials said.
The June 23 flash floods that swept through West Virginia trapped 17 people in the Clendenin Health Center, located in the former Clendenin Middle School at 107 Koontz Ave., said Amber Crist, director of program development for Cabin Creek Health System, which operates the clinic. Staff members and patients were stuck until the next day, Crist said.
The staff helped to evacuate people from the building's other levels, which contain senior apartments.
"In some ways, it was a real advantage that they had been stuck and could help to evacuate residents," she said. "I worry what would have happened if they weren't there."
Four staff members and many patients of the clinic lost their homes in the flooding, Crist said.
The clinic itself wasn't damaged in the flood, but the apartments below it were completely submerged, Crist said. The flooding also destroyed the clinic's electrical panel, phone system, fire alarm system and elevator. The clinic reopened July 13 on generator power, Crist said.
"The health center is fully operational, there just happens to be a generator sitting outside," Crist said.
Apartments on the lower level were destroyed, but those who lived on the third level will be able to come back when power is restored, Crist said.
While the building was empty for a while, Crist said the clinic's staff didn't stop treating people after the flood.
Staff members treated people in two tents in town. They also did home visits to patients and operated out of a mobile clinic borrowed from FamilyCare Health Centers, she said.
"I thought it was impressive how the staff came together and continued to provide services using tents in Clendenin right after the flood," said Craig Robinson, executive director for Cabin Creek Health Systems.
Crist said there's been confusion about if and when the clinic would reopen. Some people don't know that it already has, she said.
The confusion may been partly caused when a makeshift clinic in town shut down.
"Clendenin had a lot of devastation," she said. "I think some individuals in the community were confused by the field hospital, thinking that was related to us.
"We're really trying to spread the word that we're here for patients and for new patients and we're staying in the Clendenin area," she said. "We're staying in that community. That community needs us now."
A room in the clinic is filled with a "mini super market" of donations, Crist said. Diapers, bottles of water, hygiene products, baby formula and cleaning supplies are available to those who need it.
"Sometimes patients come in and they're living in tents and they need supplies," Crist said. "We're taking things out for home visits. People still need access to hygiene."
Crist said the staff will continue to do home visits for people who need them for the foreseeable future.
Reach Lori Kersey at lori.kersey@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1240 or follow @LoriKerseyWV on Twitter.