Never before have we started a vacation by visiting a site of one of the worst natural tragedies in recent history. Route 60 took us through the town of Rainelle, West Virginia, a town that was devastated in the 2016 West Virginia flood that began with torrential rains on June 23. Thunderstorms poured up to 10 inches in just a few hours that then produced widespread and destructive flash flooding. One of the citizens was quoted as saying “Many people lost everything and some people lost their lives….This is our Katrina.”

We first noticed huge piles of trash in front of nearly every home and business. Then we saw the Red Cross signs for help. A fellow I met at the Subway several towns further down the road told me they had opened their schools and town hall for the families who were evacuated, and some were still living in shelters.

Three weeks after the worst flood in their town’s history.

Imagine the picture above times several hundred. In a town of 1500 population, losing one person is a tragedy; Greenbrier County, in which Rainelle is found, lost 15 lives. It was reminiscent of the trip we took through Louisiana and passed through New Orleans one year after Katrina. Huge piles of debris still filled the center of the roads and the empty lots. Rarely do we see so clearly this lesson that our lives and homes are so very fragile.

The remainder of the day was spent wandering through the mountains of West Virginia into Kentucky, and finally reaching the relatively flat plains of the farmlands of Western Kentucky and eastern Ohio. Corn and soybean crops all looked healthy. We spent the night on a lovely (and lonely–we were the only campers there!) campground on the Ohio River.  This was our view that afforded a lovely sunset.