
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 18, 1990                   TAG: 9006180256
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SHADYSIDE, OHIO                                LENGTH: Medium

DEATH TOLL IN FLOOD REACHES 20

People whose homes and belongings were swept away by a wall of water that killed at least 20 people will have to put their lives back together largely without benefit of insurance.

Few people in this coal-mining and steel-making area along the Wegee and Pipe creeks carried flood insurance, and homeowners' insurance will not cover damage from Thursday's flood, residents and insurers said.

Rescue workers, meanwhile, held out little hope that any of the 16 people listed as missing were alive.

"It's just been too long. I don't think there's anybody alive out there. You can't swim out there that long in the Ohio River," said Chuck Vogt, Belmont County coroner's investigator.

The discovery of four more bodies Sunday brought the death toll to 20.

Authorities called off their search at nightfall, but a few volunteers kept looking from small boats equipped with portable lights. The full-scale search was to resume this morning.

Officials said Friday that 60 people were missing; some of those later were found dead, while others notified authorities that they were safe and officials learned that still more had moved out of the area.

The Wegee and Pipe creeks overflowed during storms that dumped 5 1/2 inches of rain in 3 1/2 hours. The floods destroyed as many as 70 houses and damaged up to 40 others.

"We didn't think we needed to have flood insurance. For what? That creek never flooded. Then this. Everybody just got wiped out," said Julia Kulazenka.

Rainwater running down hillsides had forced debris into the creeks and formed dams at bridges spanning them, Shadyside Fire Chief Mark Badia said.

"Eventually the bridges couldn't hold any more. The debris broke loose, and that's when we got three big gushes of water," Badia said.

The home Kulazenka shared with her husband until his death last July was damaged as Wegee Creek raged out of control. She said replacing a machine shop, garage, deck and automobiles she and her son owned would cost more than $80,000.

"They told us homeowners' won't do us no good. So unless the government helps us rebuild, I don't know what I'll do with this place," Kulazenka said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will open an office Tuesday in Shadyside to accept applications from residents for low-interest loans and grants to help them rebuild.

by CNB