![\"\"](\"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/08\/Ronnie-Scott-and-family-150x150.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Event: <\/strong>The 2016 West Virginia flood\u2014 considered a 1,000-year natural event with a 0.1 percent probability of happening in any given year \u2014 ravaged Greenbrier Valley residents on June 23. Torrential rain and thunder, rising 10 to 12 inches in 12 hours, turned quiet creeks into flash floods that ran down steep hills, alleyways and streets washing away roads, houses and entire neighborhoods. Twenty- three people lost their lives, including a 14-year-old girl.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ronnie Scott returned home<\/strong> from high a school basketball game in White Sulphur Springs, part of Greenbrier Valley, to the house he built by hand for his family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \u201cI heard the thunder and [saw the] lightning all day,\u201d Scott says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At home, his wife, Belinda, was cooking supper as he took a cold drink from the fridge and went out to the porch. \u201cIn that short time, the creek had risen like 15 feet,\u201d he remembers. \u201cI told Belinda to take her car and leave the house immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott, in the meantime, tried to pull his camper up on the nearby hill to safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe water was full across my street; I could see two inches ahead,\u201d he says. \u201cFences, trees, walls and other debris were flooding down the creek. I started beating doors, screaming and howling to get neighbors to come out and go up on the hill. I got five of my neighbors out. One neighbor, a dad, refused to leave. Soon the water was going through their windows. The whole family was swept away. The rescuers did not find their 14-year-old girl\u2019s body until two months later.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unbeknownst to Scott, Belinda had gone back to the house to rescue their dog and cat while he tried to help their neighbors. She became trapped in the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI told her over the phone to take crowbar and a hammer, break the fence and go to the porch,\u201d Scott says. \u201cI told her, \u2018When the rescue comes, I can pull the boat up.\u2019 Last thing she said to me was that she smelled gas.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The gas line under Scott\u2019s house had broken when another house washed down the creek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur house filled up with gas, the gas explosion blew it up and threw my wife and cat into a tree,\u201d he says. \u201cThey ended up hanging in that tree for the next four and half hours.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That tree still stands tall on Scott\u2019s land, now part of Paisley Park, as a memorial dedicated to Belinda and all the other flood victims. Tragically, Belinda did not survive, dying a week later at the hospital from the explosion burns on her body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cShe was my angel,\u201d Scott says. \u201cI love her, I miss her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n At first, Scott wanted to give up on White Sulphur Springs, where he was born 65 years ago and where he has lived all his life. Scott got an offer to live in the city\u2019s new flood victim housing, City of Hope. But he hesitated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to stay,\u201d he says. \u201cSome people rebuilt by the creek. New coding was set into an effect after the floods. Houses have to be two feet above the water line. If I had to sleep next to a creek again, I could never do that. So, I accepted the offer. I live there now, up on the hill. I feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understandably, considering what Scott and his family went through three years ago, he is still troubled by complicated emotions and terrible memories that haunt him. One memory concerns his son and his family. He was close to losing them, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy son, his wife and their kids were able to escape to the attic, when their house flooded,\u201d he says. \u201cMy son was paddling the water away with his hands to keep the family safe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two months after the tragedy, Scott found an answer to his family\u2019s tragedies in God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI got baptized. and I knew why God was talking to me and why he sought me out,\u201d Scott explains. He also gains solace from the memorial, where he visits often to be with Belinda, and where the residents can gather to grieve the lost ones and dream for a better future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the flood, Scott acquired a farmland property in Monroe county, about 30 miles from West Sulphur Springs. There, he feels like can get away, and he plans to install solar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ironically, after the floods, Scott has witnessed drought and rapidly changing temperatures across the farmland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSprings and rivers have dried up, wells are dry,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have the worst draught in West Virginia since the 1940s. \u201cThe governor issued a warning for not using water for personal use. No water for lawns, washing automobiles or filling swimming pools. You are in real trouble there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scott is also worried about the extensive tree-cutting around him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have been cut by the coal mining companies or by the storms,\u201d he says. Scott loves trees. He guards them, and he doesn\u2019t agree with the damage mining has caused to the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For decades now, companies have been cutting down the trees to build quarries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNow, it is just dust and dirt, and nothing will grow there,\u201d Scott says. \u201cYou can see that every time you go through the coal fields. They cut the trees \u2014 the white oak trees and the red oak trees. \u201cI don\u2019t think people use coal like they used to. Our governor is big on coal mining. He thinks that coal can come back, but I have always used wood to heat my house. After every storm, I went out to get dead wood and used it. I never cut a tree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his desire to create a healthier environment and future for all, Scott drives his wife\u2019s old car as little as possible. He also struggles with recent business developments in his area \u2014 cutting oak trees for whisky barrel manufacturing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI tell everybody that material stuff doesn\u2019t mean anything,\u201d Scott says. \u201cI worked very hard all my life and had anything I wanted. I had more than I needed. Now, if I buy something, it\u2019s something I \u2018m really going to use, otherwise I don\u2019t buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, Scott has stayed strong in his personal mission to share his family\u2019s story with everyone who is willing to listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI tell everybody, you know? We are going to have to educate people, to change their ways of living, to make a change because of the climate and how we treat each other, \u201cScott says. \u201cNature will take its course, and the trees will grow back, but it will take time. That\u2019s why we have to do our part now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2014 Kirsi-M. Hayrinen-Beschloss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Voices from the Future | Ronnie Scott The Thousand-Year Flood The Event: The 2016 West Virginia flood\u2014 considered a 1,000-year natural event with a 0.1 percent probability of happening in","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":276,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9,12,18,13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-support","category-floods","category-need-for-rebuilding","category-north-america","category-personal-climate-awakening","category-voices"],"uds_featured_image":{"id":276,"alt_text":"flooded town","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1024,"height":309,"file":"2022\/01\/flooded-town-1024x309-2.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"flooded-town-1024x309-2-300x91.jpg","width":300,"height":91,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/flooded-town-1024x309-2-300x91.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"flooded-town-1024x309-2-150x150.jpg","width":150,"height":150,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/flooded-town-1024x309-2-150x150.jpg"},"medium_large":{"file":"flooded-town-1024x309-2-768x232.jpg","width":768,"height":232,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/flooded-town-1024x309-2-768x232.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"0","credit":"","camera":"","caption":"","created_timestamp":"0","copyright":"","focal_length":"0","iso":"0","shutter_speed":"0","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":170,"source_url":"https:\/\/globalfutures.asu.edu\/futurevoices\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/01\/flooded-town-1024x309-2.jpg"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n