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Not a good week to be anywhere but hunkered down, waiting for the next disaster to strike.
In Virginia, Tennessee, and West Virginia Rescue crews and National Guardsmen worked to reach persons isolated by flooding and to reopen roads throughout Southwest Virginia. Cleanup operations were expected to take weeks local officials said as the worst of the flooding in the state’s coal mining region ended yesterday. Between 1000 and 2000 persons are estimated to be homeless and authorities said damages would easily exceed those caused by the last major flood in Southwest Virginia in 1997 which left about 2000 homeless and 18600 unemployed. All the major coal mining companies closed for an indefinite period and the Norfolk and Western Railway Co said it was unable to estimate how much damage had been done to tracks and equipment. In communities throughout the nine-county region business and residential areas were badly damaged. The state said it would take more than $20 million to repair roads and bridges in the region which was forced to endure icy weather not long ago.
The Virginia State Office of Emergency Services in Richmond said late last night it had received a report of four persons “known dead” in Buchanan County as a result of flooding The report was given to the office by Buchanan County Administrator Andrew Hagy who also said some 2000 homes (including trailers) were destroyed by the flooding Levisa River A critical need in Grundy is “water” Hagy reported and efforts were being made to obtain auxiliary power units to operate water wells Water purification equipment also was being sought.
Meanwhile, Tornadoes ripped parts of Alabama, killing at least 15 persons and leaving dazed survivors searching for their loved ones, while heavy spring rain triggered floods in three other states. Three persons died in the flooding. The wind storms which also hit Mississippi and Georgia and the floods left scores injured and thousands homeless.
And the pilot of a DC-9 jet his two engines out and his windshield cracked in a violent storm made a heroic effort to avoid a crash which left at least 68 dead federal investigators said Tuesday The pilot glided three or four minutes after warning the passengers they would crash He was told to try for a nearby military base but he knew he couldn’t make it So he concentrated his last desperate hope on a rural road Investigator Rudy Kapustin called it “a hell of a try” Despite it the jetliner slammed into trees cars and a grocery store and then exploded and burned in the woods of this small north Georgia town about 35 miles northwest of Atlanta Z Sixty of the 85 passengers and crew aboard Southern Airways’ flight 242 from Huntsville Ala to Atlanta died in the wreckage Monday Eight people on the ground also were killed.
And while Floods were sweeping across the Southeast, that’s just a small sliced of what happened for the week ending April 10, 1977 as reported by ABC Radio: Voices In The Headlines.
