| Chapter 1: | Buffalo Creek Before, During, and Soon After the Flood |
They suffered the highest losses of lives, the most injuries, and the greatest amount of damage to private and public property. Three of the former residents described it like this to Erikson:
By the time the front wave reached Kistler, the last coal camp before the town of Man, it only overflowed the banks of the creek by three to five feet in many places. To some residents, it almost seemed to be like other seasonal floods that were so common there and at many other coal camps in Logan County.12
By 11:00 a.m., most of the floodwater had poured into the Guyandotte River just below the town of Man. Pooled water drained into Buffalo Creek sufficiently that survivors could start assessing the damages and search through the debris that was left behind. It took more than a few days for all of the direct damages to be estimated. The indirect and long-term damages are still being estimated to this day (this book is a case in point). Eventually, the state of West Virginia officially decreed that 125 people had died in the flood. Seven of the bodies have never been recovered. Three bodies that were recovered were so severely damaged that they were unidentifiable. Seventy-one were females. Fifty-four were males. All were listed as being “White” regarding race.13