{"id":661,"date":"2019-07-16T22:47:20","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T22:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/15i.48b.myftpupload.com\/?p=661"},"modified":"2019-07-16T22:47:23","modified_gmt":"2019-07-16T22:47:23","slug":"flood-damage-at-riverside-mennonite-church-1985","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/?p=661","title":{"rendered":"Flood Damage at Riverside Mennonite Church, 1985"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When the Dry Fork River, W.Va., rose to record levels in\nNovember 1985, the Riverside Mennonite Church flooded, and the church suffered\nmuch damage. Randolph County, W.Va. got over a foot of rain in two days, and the\n40-50 Riverside members needed help to clean up and fix their building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At flood stage, the meetinghouse and parking lot, three miles\nnorth of Harman, W.Va., were in danger of being swept away by the roiling\nriver. Water came up to the window sills, and the benches floated inside. What\nprobably saved the building was a large number of trees that floated against\nthe building and kept the structure intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Shenandoah Valley Mennonite Disaster Service organization\nresponded immediately, but not until roads were passable were volunteers\nallowed to begin cleaning up in the area of Riverside church. After that,\nvolunteers went to the Harman area to help. Students from EMHS and EMC went out\nby the van load to help clean up and fix up. One group of EMHS students pulled piles\nof dead turkeys from a field, some of which had already partially decayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From 1932-2017, Riverside Mennonite Church had been a part of\nthe Middle District (later Central) of the Virginia Mennonite Conference. The\nMiddle District Council authorized a generous donation to help in renovating\nand rebuilding. The church ordered new hymnals, new pews, a new rug, replaced\nsome aluminum siding, and needed significant dozer work on the parking lot. Riverside\npastors Joe Mininger and Woodie Sites waited a month before calling Sunday\nmorning services again. Volunteers Paul and Nancy Showalter gave substantial\ntime and energy in leading the renovation efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By August 1987, the church\u2019s renovations were complete, with a new kitchen, Sunday school rooms, and indoor toilets. The building project was finished debt-free, and a celebration service took place at the church on August 30, 1987. A church bulletin from that era carried the banner \u201cSpared for a Purpose.\u201d It took the concerted efforts of MDS resources, local help, community volunteers, and young people from Harrisonburg to help Riverside Mennonite Church recover from the devastating flood of 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Riverside Mennonite Church, 1985, before the flood (Eleanor Minninger, photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Riverside Mennonite Church after the river waters receded, 1985<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Riverside Mennonite Church, 1987, after renovations<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Dry Fork River, W.Va., rose to record levels in November 1985, the Riverside Mennonite Church flooded, and the church suffered much damage. Randolph County, W.Va. got over a foot of rain in two days, and the 40-50 Riverside members needed help to clean up and fix their building. At flood stage, the meetinghouse … Continue reading Flood Damage at Riverside Mennonite Church, 1985<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-virginia-mennonite-west-flood-1985-riverside"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.mennonitearchivesofvirginia.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}