ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 2, 1997 TAG: 9702030067
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PURGATORY MOUNTAIN
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
Sherry and Paul Aliff had just minutes to grab what they could from their house in Arcadia before the deluge brought on by Hurricane Fran overtook it.
In moments like that, your values system becomes crystal clear. It's as simple as what to grab first, knowing you'll never save everything.
With the water rising, the choices were simple for the Aliffs. They got their two daughters to safety, and went for the sentimental stuff. A photo album. Paul's antique radio that had belonged to his grandmother. Sherry had grabbed a change of clothes for everyone and a box full of important papers a few minutes before.
The rest - nearly every practical item a family requires for daily living - was lost to the intruding creek as it washed through their Botetourt County home Sept. 6.
Saturday, with about the same speed with which all that stuff was lost, it was replaced by a stunningly generous group of strangers from a place Sherry Aliff had never heard of before.
A group of residents from the Brandermill section of Chesterfield County, outside Richmond, pulled up to the Aliffs' new home overlooking Buchanan and in 20 minutes emptied two trucks full of nearly everything the Aliffs lacked: salt and pepper shakers, flatware, dish towels, a clothes hamper, lamps, light bulbs, a smoke alarm, encyclopedias, a bedroom furniture set, even a washer and dryer.
Most things were even in requested colors.
"We figure if we're going to replace their items, we might as well replace them with what they want," said Wendy Parker, managing editor of Brandermill's community newspaper and one of the organizers of the effort.
This is the fourth time residents of Brandermill have come to the aid of people devastated by a natural disaster. It started when some neighbors adopted a family in Florida who fell victim to Hurricane Andrew. Then they adopted the town of Hannibal, Mo., during the Mississippi river floods a few years ago. In 1995, they adopted two families in Buena Vista devastated by flooding.
This year, it's the Aliffs and a family in Loudoun County.
"You just have to let people [in our community] know somebody's starting over," and they are happy to help, said Pat Johnson, who came with her husband, Lonnie, Parker and Bill Smith to deliver the items.
Most of Southwest Virginia was breathing easy on the morning of Sept. 6 after Fran jogged slightly to the east and spared this end of the state from flooding predicted to rival the flood of November 1985.
But at 6:30 that morning, Sherry Aliff awoke to find the creek by the home they had owned for just 14 months a foot below the top of their flood wall and climbing.
At 7:15, the creek topped the flood wall. Water lapped at the ceilings in their house before it began to recede.
Parker and the others saw video of the Aliffs' home on television in Midlothian. The Aliffs and the family in Loudoun were identified as two of the most needy in the state by the Virginia Department of Emergency Services. The Aliffs also were helped by state Sen. John Edwards, who told their story to Chesterfield County Supervisor and Emergency Services liaison Art Warren.
Parker published a story about the families the community had adopted in her paper, the Village Mill, and contributions began piling up at collection points. Money came in, too, and some retailers offered discounts on large items such as furniture. Hundreds contributed, Parker said.
With insurance money, some help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, several churches and many strangers, they paid off the mortgage on their flooded house and bought a piece of land and the modular home to go on it.
Make no mistake. They bought land on a mountain on purpose, Sherry Aliff said. They weren't about to live anywhere near water.
The wet months from early fall through December kept the ground too soft for their home to be delivered. Saturday was the first chance Parker and the others had to bring the items to the Aliffs' new home. The house won't be ready for another week or so, with the plumbing and front porch still unfinished.
But Saturday afternoon, Sherry Aliff and her daughters rummaged through the boxes of stuff from the Brandermill folks like kids on Christmas morning.
Aliff found it difficult to express her gratitude.
"Other than just to say 'thank you,''' she said, "I don't know how."
For Parker and the others, it's not about gratitude, anyway, they say.
There's a lesson it for them, though, Parker said.
"Everybody pitching in a little makes a big difference," she said.
LENGTH: Medium: 87 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ERIC BRADY/Staff. Sherry Aliff (right) and daughterby CNBKristin talk on Saturday to (left to right) Wendy Parker, Lonnie
Johnson and Pat Johnson. color.