Washed ashore seven hours later and seven miles downstream, Amber Colvin was one of the lucky survivors of the worst flash-flood disaster to hit eastern Ohio in years. At the weekend, according to emergency workers, 16 people were confirmed dead and 36 were still missing–including Amber’s friend Kerrie Trigg. The village of Shadyside, on the Ohio River, was almost wiped out by a wall of water that may have been 20 feet high, and rescue workers spent the weekend searching miles of country roads for victims and survivors. “It’s unbelievable,” one local official said. “A creek you could walk across with water up to your ankles in some places rose 15 to 25 feet.”
The Federal Emergency Management i Agency declared a two-county area along the Ohio a disaster area, along with Franklin County, 100 miles to the west. Officials evacuated hundreds of central Ohio residents, but the Ohio River valley was caught by surprise. The reason, forecasters said, was that the storm did not appear to be a full-fledged flood threat on radar. While a flash-flood alert was issued, they said, a flood warning, which would have led to evacuation, was not.
Dazed residents swapped stories of their harrowing night. One man, Herman Adams, wept as he told about watching his daughter and her two children being swept away in their mobile home. A taproom patron reportedly survived by clinging to his bar stool. And Amber Colvin, miraculously unharmed, clung to her mother and tried to forget. “All she talked about was Kerrie,” her mother said. “We prayed all night.”
