| Chapter 1: | Buffalo Creek Before, During, and Soon After the Flood |
Later, at about 3:00 a.m., Maxine Adkins, a resident of Three Forks, called the Logan County Sheriff’s Office and reported that some miners had just returned from checking dam #3. They were warning people that it was about to collapse. She asked Deputy Sheriff Spriggs to call out the National Guard. Shortly after that, Deputy Spriggs phoned Sheriff Grimmett at his home and reported his phone conversation with Mrs. Adkins. Sheriff Grimmett then phoned several BMC officials at their homes along Buffalo Creek and down in Man. He inquired about the safety of the dams up at Three Forks. The officials assured him that there was no cause for a general alarm. Sheriff Grimmett was not reassured. At about 5:00 a.m., after a few more hours of heavy rain and phone calls from other residents of Buffalo Creek who were concerned about the dams, Sheriff Grimmett ordered his deputies to start a full-scale alert of the coal camps and to advise people to evacuate their homes to higher ground. He instructed Deputy Spriggs to notify the National Guard and to request immediate assistance with the evacuation. Deputy Spriggs phoned National Guard Headquarters in Charleston, as instructed. He ordered Deputies Mutters and Doty to drive along Buffalo Creek, warn residents of the danger, and encourage them to evacuate their homes.
Meanwhile, at about 6:00 a.m., BMC’s Steve Dasovich inspected dam #3 with Jack Kent. Dasovich instructed Kent to assemble a work crew and have a ditch dug and a drainage pipe installed to divert the rainwater that was nearing the crest of the dam. Dasovich then drove back down along Buffalo Creek to Lorado. There he encountered deputies Doty and Mutters as they drove around alerting people to the possibility of a flood and encouraging them to evacuate the area. Dasovich told the deputies that the dam had been secured and that there was no need to evacuate the people. He then went into his office in Lorado and phoned his boss, I. C. Spotte, the president of BMC, at his home in Dante, Virginia. Spotte listened to Dasovich’s description of the situation at Three Forks, and he voiced his approval of Dasovich’s decisions. Dasovich then went into the streets to talk with residents who were out in the rain, watching the rising waters of the creek, and worrying about the prospects of a flood. He assured them that the dams at Three Forks had been secured and that the mines would operate normal shifts that day.