Hudson Placka could see the rainwaters rushing into his elementary school in Westernport. Around him, many of his third-grade classmates cried. Frantic parents tried to reach the school on roads that, seemingly in an instant, had turned to rivers.
Hudson was one of 150 students and 50 adults evacuated by boat from Westernport Elementary School amid the worst flooding to hit Allegany County in 30 years. Gov. Wes Moore toured the area late Thursday and declared a state of emergency.
The 8-year-old described the boat ride as “pretty fun,” though he added the day was “very stressful.”
The storm rapidly dumped 5 inches of rain Tuesday morning and inundated Georges Creek, a narrow Potomac River tributary that runs through Westernport. It damaged the town’s volunteer fire station, flooded basements, coated the library in mud and left teachers’ cars submerged in the school parking lot.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
It also returned the tiny Western Maryland mountain town, surrounded by tree-lined Appalachian hills, to a familiar position of recovering from devastation.
200 people evacuated from Western Maryland school by boats
Westernport, population roughly 1,800, has seen jobs disappear, people move away and essential services threatened. Each blow has deepened the community’s sense of being forgotten and left behind, many here said.
Last week’s floods were another hit. Residents vow they’ll come together to clean up and rebuild, driven by a lesson they’ve learned time and again: If they don’t save their community, no one else will.
On Thursday, Hudson, his mother and a group of older kids worked to clear debris that had lodged around the fence of his still-shuttered school. Hudson said he found several sticks, books and Bibles.
Dressed in blue jeans and rubber boots that stretched to his knees, Hudson said it was important to restore a place he has attended since kindergarten.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
“I’ve just had this school for a really long time,” the third grader explained.
‘This town’s gone through a lot’
The way Westernport Elementary took on water, some staff members said, was reminiscent of the Titanic. As the rain breached the building and filled the first floor, some kids grew hopeful that their school day might end early. Others asked: Are we going to die?
“It went from ‘this is unbelievable’ to ‘this is real,’” said Laura Biser, a parent liaison at the school.
Though school employees said they hadn’t trained for a flood evacuation, they quickly pulled together a plan, helping groups of kids into life jackets and onto emergency boats.
In fast-moving waters filled with debris, first responders transported the students to dry land and then to a nearby Lutheran church. Every child made it unharmed.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Ashley Bowman’s 7-year-old daughter, Adalynn, cried and leapt into her mother’s arms when they reunited at the church. Since the floods, Adalynn has been scared to go outside, Bowman said.
Bowman’s brother-in-law rescued her 5-year-old son, Emmitt, from his school in nearby Lonaconing, wading barefoot through waist-deep water while carrying the boy on his shoulders.
Since the floods, Bowman has tried to reassure her kids that life will soon return to normal.
“We‘ve brought them to the door, and we‘ve showed them, ‘Look, it’s sunny outside. Everything’s getting better,’” Bowman said. “They still don’t want to get in vehicles.”
Westernport Elementary remains closed indefinitely and faces a massive cleanup. On Thursday, a basketball hoop and soccer goal remained partially submerged in brown water. Biser’s Jeep Cherokee, one of several employee vehicles the floodwaters swept away, lay on its side near the train tracks.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
A 30-year resident of Westernport, Biser worried how the town would recover from another major hit. In 2019, the closure of a 131-year-old paper mill in nearby Luke cost nearly 700 workers, including her husband, Jamie, their jobs.
“This town’s gone through a lot,” Biser said. “We already have very limited resources. It’s definitely a poor community, for the most part. And so this [flood] is going to be very hard for a lot of people to come back.”
Jamie Biser had worked a manufacturing job at the mill for 24 years. His father was also once employed there. They expected to stay until they retired.
“So, when that shut down, everybody was like, ‘OK, well, what now?’” Jamie Biser said.
The Georges Creek communities have yet to get those jobs back. Many former mill employees, including Jamie Biser, now work at a Northrop Grumman facility in Rocket Center, West Virginia. Others landed jobs at a federal prison in Cumberland.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Jamie Biser said that, while the mill closure was devastating to Westernport, it also revealed the town’s resilience.
“It’s that small-town community, pulling together and surviving,” he said. “It’s just the mentality people around here have. They just face things and keep going.”
‘Our library is the heart of our town’
As coal and manufacturing jobs vanished and the town’s population fell — down 24% since 1990 — officials have weighed whether it’s worth continuing to invest in Westernport.
Last June, the local emergency medical services station was at risk of shuttering. Residents fundraised to keep it open.
This year, the town library on Main Street reportedly became one of three branches the county library system is considering closing.
The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
The town’s residents mobilized once again. Community members started a nonprofit called Save the Westernport Library. The group has over 1,000 members on Facebook and says it has raised $50,000 in three months.
Amid uncertainty over the library’s future, the rains came Tuesday.
Georges Creek, which runs parallel to Main Street, rose to triple its typical level, peaking inches shy of the record set during the 1996 floods.
The floodwaters ravaged Main Street buildings, including the library. A volunteer fire station filled with more than a foot of water as its members were assisting with rescues and welfare checks around town. Across the street, the water blasted a hole in a public works building and swept away the town’s tools.
Muddy water shattered the glass entrance to Westernport Library, and within minutes the building was under water.
A waterline showed the flood rose as high as 3 feet, forcing books off the shelves and causing chairs from a meeting room to float out the door.
When the waters receded, they left behind a dense coating of mud, littered with books, wire display stands, binders and someone’s new library card.
“We think the vast majority of the collection is going to have to be disposed of,” said John Taube, executive director of the Allegany County Library System.
Behind the circulation desk, a sign that read “Our library is the heart of our town” remained untouched.
The Westernport Library, which opened in 1970, is one of the town’s last remaining gathering spots. Days before the flood, it welcomed 30 people for Mother’s Day tea. It has hosted social workers, Girl Scouts and kids who needed structured things to do in the summer.
It also provided Wi-Fi in a community where poverty and the mountainous terrain limit access to the internet. Recently, the library also began distributing free gun safety locks to encourage residents to store their weapons securely.
Taube said the threats to the library — first its funding and now the flood — have the town’s residents “feeling a little aggrieved.”
“Things are being taken away from them,” Taube said. “They want the great quality of life that everybody else wants. And, unfortunately, we haven’t found the magic bullet yet economically to make it happen across the county.”
Last week’s storm brought an unusual surge of resources and attention to Westernport, including visits from Moore, U.S. Rep. April McClain Delaney and U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen.
The governor’s emergency declaration will potentially streamline Westernport’s access to state and federal funds, which the town says it’ll need to rebuild schools, roads and other services.
Westernport Mayor Judy Hamilton said offers of help and supplies have poured in from all directions.
“Our hearts are broken for our town, our community,” Hamilton said. “But the amount of volunteers and support we have got — they just showed up. People came out of — I don’t know where."
Residents of Westernport continue to lean on each other.
Bowman said her daughter Adalynn’s first-grade teacher visited their home and dropped off a care basket.
On Thursday, one woman took a vacation day from work to clean the fire department’s damaged furniture.
A son trudged through knee-deep water to retrieve his mother’s Bible from her drowned car.
And a couple who had moved from Westernport to Pittsburgh drove two hours to deliver food, heavy-duty gloves and cleaning supplies to their hometown.
“We‘ve had to deal with a lot, but we‘re resilient,” the mayor said. “We always build back and come back. That’s been just the history of this town.”
Banner reporter Adam Willis contributed to this article.
Comments
Welcome to The Banner's subscriber-only commenting community. Please review our community guidelines.