Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 16, 1990 TAG: 9006160163
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SHADYSIDE, OHIO LENGTH: Medium
Amber Colvin was in her family's home playing a card game with a neighbor when the storm hit Thursday night. The house started to fill with water.
Amber said her 12-year-old friend, Kerrie Trigg, wanted to get in the bathtub.
"We got in the bathtub, and the water was over our heads and then the house collapsed," Amber said from her Bellaire City Hospital room.
She doesn't know why they got in the tub but remembers Kerrie being hit on the head, knocking her out. Kerrie was still missing on Friday.
"I tried to save her," Amber said. "I almost drowned. I was swept out of the house."
Amber was swept down Wegee Creek and then into the nearby Ohio River. Although she can only swim a little, she said she kept kicking her legs and hung on to two logs.
"I had them for a long time," she said. "I just drifted."
She said she was in the water from about 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. She tried to work her way to the shore to get to a factory where her father worked. She reached shore about seven miles from her home.
Her mother, Karen, said the last time she saw her daughter was at 9:30 p.m. She said she and her husband, Dennis, went into town to do some shopping but could not return and didn't know until 2 a.m. that their house was swept away and Amber was gone.
The Colvins stayed at the Jefferson Elementary School, where authorities set up a command center to coordinate rescue efforts. They eventually were told Amber was found alive.
Amber's parents met the emergency squad as it went through Shadyside.
"I can't begin to tell you how she looked. I don't know who was in shock more - me or her," Karen said as tears swelled in her eyes.
Amber suffered no broken bones. She was listed in fair condition in the hospital, suffering from scrapes and other minor injuries.
by CNB