Roxy Todd, Author at West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Mudslides, Floods, and Snowstorms- For New AmeriCorps Program, It's Been a Busy March

There are about 180 active AmeriCorps volunteers working in West Virginia. A new partnership between Volunteer West Virginia and the Red Cross is training many of these AmeriCorps to be ready to serve communities affected by disasters. Some of these volunteers have already been deployed in the last few weeks to assist residents affected by flooding and mudslides as part of a new statewide program called Disaster Corps.

The first week in March, homes in southern West Virginia were damaged, and people were displaced because of mudslides, snowstorms, and flooding. A Pocahontas County native, Shinaberry said that when the call came asking for volunteers to travel down to icy Mingo County, she said yes, even though she was apprehensive that she didn’t have enough carpentry skills.

“I have experience cause I grew up in a farming area, so I’m not new to hands on stuff. But I didn’t know what was going to be expected of me. I really don’t know how to build or repair anything.”

AmeriCorps members Torya Cummings, Jamielle Jackson, and Christin Shinaberry have signed up for a new program, called Disaster Corps

Thankfully, Shinaberry and her fellow AmeriCorps volunteers were working alongside other groups, like the American Baptist Men, who taught them how to do things like remove damaged drywall and carpets from homes that were affected by mudslides and flooding.

Another Disaster Corps volunteer, Jamielle Jackson, is originally from Detroit, where there is no shortage of need for assistance. But she says communities in Detroit are not used to the type of flooding people in southern West Virginia see.

Most of the Disaster Corps volunteers were involved with hands on work. But some of them, like Beckley native Torya Cummings, also helped with casework and getting folks set up with food, clothing and shelter.

“It was exciting and sad all at the same time to see the devastation that they have suffered, even the little things, like sliding your shoes on just walking out of the house, they had to leave without their shoes. And I mean, it’s like, minus 11 minus 10.”

Stephanie Yu is the executive director of Volunteer West Virginia, and she explains the Disaster Corps program came about partly in response to last year’s water crisis in Kanawha County, and the Derecho back in 2012. “There was sort of this idea that we needed to have this infrastructure so that when things like that happen we could have people ready to go.”

The Disaster Corps program is a partnership between Volunteer West Virginia and disaster response agencies, like the American Red Cross.

When there isn’t a disaster, these AmeriCorps continue to work on longer-term projects, like tutoring children or helping veterans. Torya Cummings admits leaving Mingo County after aiding in flood relief in the short term felt a little bit strange- almost like she was abandoning them.

“It was difficult leaving them and knowing I’m going home. and you have to stay here in this hotel, or you’re going to have to find family members that can take you in, or just totally rebuild. That’s got to be hard.”

A week after she returned from Mingo County, Cummings was deployed to Kanawha County to help residents displaced from the Yeager Airport Landslide. Some of those residents are still evacuated from their homes in the area directly affected by the slide, Keystone Drive, while others are in the process of deciding to stay in the area or sell their homes and move away.

Paws4people Teaches Prisoners To Find Compassion and Tolerance

St. Mary’s Correctional Center is one of five state prisons in West Virginia where inmates help train service dogs. The program is a partnership between the paws4people foundation and the West Virginia Division of Corrections.

The prison yard is surrounded by razor wire fencing. About a hundred men are outside wearing khaki jumpsuits and orange jackets. In many ways, it could be any other medium security prison- except that there are about 15 golden retrievers being led around on leashes in the sunlight. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoMJprKqmZw&feature=youtu.be

Stephfon is one of 32 inmates at St. Mary’s who was selected to be part of the paws4people program. For nearly a year, he’s been working to train an English Cream Golden Retriever named Leo.

“Since I’ve had Leo, he’s taught me a lot of things about myself. Such as, myself having anger problems, and tolerance problems. Because when you’re dealing with dogs, you have to have tolerance and be able to control your anger. And either you’re gonna get it together, or you’re just not gonna have them anymore,” said Stephfon.

The paws4people program started in 2007 at the Hazelton Federal Prison in Preston County, and a couple of years ago it moved to the state prisons.

During their training, the dogs learn a hundred commands that they will be able to use to serve a disabled client. But after months of training, dogs are introduced to their prospective new clients, at an event called the “Bump”. For the inmates, this means their dog is about to leave the prison to go finish their service dog training and live with their new client.

“There’s a lot of tears. The toughest guy in here cries whenever his dog leaves,” said Amanda Anderson, the program manager at the St. Mary’s Correctional Center. Andreson helps manage the paws4people unit.

“I can’t imagine what they go through. I struggle sometimes because you do get attached. And with them, they’re putting everything they have into that dog.”

Cece Miller is the deputy operations officer for the Paws 4 People Foundation. She says the inmate trainers go through a kind of emotional transformation as they realize the impact of their work. “And this program has given them something that no other program has given them. And that’s a piece of themselves back that they lost.”

The bump is a two-day event that takes place inside the prison’s gymnasium. In front of a crowd of people, the dogs are introduced to the new clients one at a time.

“I was apprehensive about how a dog chooses his client, until I went and saw one. It’s a very emotional time,” said Patrick Mirandy, the Warden at St. Mary’s Correctional Center. “And you’ll see a dog who may not pay any attention to a client when he walks up to him. But then you’ll see another dog walk through that just wants all the attention from that individual. The one person it has this aura effect on or whatever.”

Often, the dog will bump up against someone and nestle against their body when they feel a strong bond with a person.

“The bump reminds me of to an extent that the client…the dog senses things about them to the nature of whether they want to be there or not. Not so much as they’re angry but what they’re going through, that they sense that. And if they can’t deal with it, they don’t want nothing to do with them. And that’s beautiful,” said Stephfon.

I asked Stephfon, what will it be like for him, when Leo chooses his client and they have to part ways.

“What’s gonna help me get over that is knowing that he’s going somewhere that he’s needed. He’s not needed here. I might say I need him, but there’s another one coming behind him. He’s going where he’s needed, where he can do some good for somebody, where he can make somebody else’s life better. And he will. He’ll make somebody else’s life better.”

The second day of the bump, Leo the dog did find his match. Leo will be working as a medical alert service dog for a civilian client who has post-traumatic stress disorder. Meanwhile, Stephfon has a new puppy that he’s training, named Nolen.

Note: Since that story was first reported last year, Stephfon is still a trainer with the paws4prisons program at St. Mary’s Correctional Center. He is also now an Academic Instructor for the paws4prisons and assists in teaching other trainers in the program.

He was denied parole in August 2015, and will see the parole board again in August 2016. The two service dogs he trained, Nolen and Leo, are both now living with their clients and are reported to be doing great at their jobs.

Therapy Dog Helps Encourage Charleston School Children to Read

Paca is an English Black Labrador who works with elementary school students at the Mary C. Snow School on Charleston’s West Side.

One of Paca’s roles is to help children who are emotionally in need of some extra love.

“Our population of students are 84% free and reduced lunch, so we have the highest poverty rate in Kanawha County,” said Assistant Principal Jordan McBride.

McBride explains that Paca the dog is actually used in the school to help children who are going through some very stressful situations at home.

“Our students experience a lot of trauma. Paca kind of comes in with that, that she is used as our therapy dog for students that are in need.”

Paca was trained by prison inmates at a state prison in Ellsworth, Kansas.

After her training there, Paca came to West Virginia in 2011 to work at the Mary C. Snow school when it first opened.

The money to pay for Paca’s training came from donations raised by the school’s librarian, Debbie Cannada. Cannada traveled to Kansas to adopt Paca and to receive her own handler training.

“When we come through the door in the morning, her tail is wagging, her eyes are bright. She’s the most excited to be here of anybody on the staff,” said Cannada.

Paca usually senses whenever a child has been going through a difficult time and is in need of some special attention. “We have children who talk to her. We’ve got one little boy that will lift her ear up like a flap, and he’ll just whisper and talk to her. For him, she is a completely objective, non judgmental, listening ear. Where he can say anything he needs to say.”

Ms. Cannada says that little bit of Paca love often goes a long way to calm a student down.

“I saw her step between two children who were…..angry with each other. And she basically nosed in between them. You know, wiggled her body in between them. And the act of her wiggling her body between them made them giggle. Cause she looked funny trying to get between them, and it de-escalated the situation instantly. They both just started petting her and laughing about how she looked so silly trying to get between them.”

Paca spends most of her working day in the library, but she also travels around the school to other classrooms for story-time.

Cindy Shuman teaches third grade, and Paca is a regular reading companion for this classroom. Today the children are taking turns reading to Paca, who occasionally lays her head in their lap or puts her paw on their leg.

Paca also works one on one with students who are struggling with reading. Children are invited to come to the library to visit Paca to read to her, to talk to her, to pet her.

“And she always answers it with a kiss, a big wet sloppy kiss, and they think that’s just the best thing ever,” said Cannada.

In part two of this story, we’ll go inside one of the West Virginia prisons where service dogs like Paca are trained by inmates.

In part three of this story, we’ll meet a service dog that helps an 11-year-old boy with special needs.

From Springs to Spills: How Does West Virginia's Water Taste to International Judges?

Appalachia is no stranger to industrial or environmental disasters that affect our water. Because of crumbling water infrastructure in many coalfield communities, folks often turn to bottled water for regular use.

But not all bottled water is equal. At least that’s according to judges at the 25th annual Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting & Competition, which took place February 19-22. The competition judges the taste of bottled water, purified water, and municipal city waters from across the world were judged.

At the water tasting and competition this year, there was some talk about the recent derailment in Fayette County.

“Well, it’s tragic. What has happened in West Virginia. And two years in a row right before the water tasting, it’s almost ironic,” said Arthur Von Wiesenberger, referring to the timing of last year’s competition, which took place about a month after the Elk River chemical spill. Wiesenberger who has trained the judges at Berkeley Springs every year since the competition started in 1990.

“I guess on the good side, it brings an enormous amount of awareness to the importance of water. And how we take clean pure water for granted until you do have a disaster. And then you do realize that this is something that’s very subject to contamination and to problems.”

Wiesenberger added that throughout the competition’s twenty-five years, some of West Virginia’s water has been judged as the best tasting water in the world.

The Berkeley Springs International Water Tasting & Competition judges bottled water and municipal water. And guess which city won the best tasting water in the world, back in 1991, and 1993, 1994? Charleston West Virginia.

Yes, that same water, which last year became notorious across the globe for its poisonous taste of liquorice-infused MCHM– that water previously won gold medals at the International Water Tasting Competition.

And since last year’s chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia, storekeepers say they’ve seen an increase in the number of bottled water sales.

Volunteers in Kanawha County helped with water distribution during last year’s water crisis that affected the drinking water of 300,000 people.

Allan Hathaway owns the Purple Onion grocery store at the Capitol Market. “Bottled water sales have been up over the last year. A lot of consumers are switching to bottled water, not only because of the water issue but also cutting back on soft drinks.”

The Purple Onion does sell spring water from West Virginia, including water from Sweet Springs in Monroe County.

In previous years, the Sweet Springs water company won four international first-place awards for the best-tasting water at the Berkley Springs Intentional Water Tasting and Competition.

Sweet Springs Valley Water Company is located near the site of one of West Virginia’s historic mineral springs hotels. Before her death, 102-year old Pauline Baker told The Traveling 219 Project what it was like to grow up in Sweet Springs during the 1920s. She described those days gone by, when fine ladies used to bathe in the mineral waters wearing suits down to their knees, and guests from all over the world used to dine in the great Jeffersonian Hall. When the hotel was abandoned during the Great Depression, she said the neighborhood children used to go down to swim in the mineral pools.

Sweet Springs is just one example of the many old springs resorts that used to exist throughout West Virginia. Berkeley Springs is also home to one of those early resorts and is still a popular tourist destinations today. The Greenbrier is another.

However celebrated West Virginia’s water has been throughout the years, this year many overseas companies outranked local water companies in the bottled water categories. 1st place for the best bottled water this year was awarded to Fengari Platinum, Platinum Class Mineral Water, Athens, Greece. Best Sparkling water also went to a Greek company– Daphne-Ultra Premium Quality Natural Mineral Sparkling.

This year one company from W.Va. did win one of the top awards: Lesage Natural Water from Cabell County, West Virginia won the fourth place award for a new category: best purified water. Their water is not taken directly from a spring, like Sweet Springs, but rather is taken from a well and is then put through a filtration system. Lesage is located along the Ohio River.

Ranking just after Lesage for 5th place for the best purified water was Mountain Drop, Linthicum, MD, which bottles water that is shipped from Berkeley Springs.

Another Appalachian winner this year was Halstead Spring Water in East Tennessee, which won third prize for the world’s best bottled water. In 2000, Halstead Spring won the gold medal at the competition. The company’s owner, John Beitz, says that their water business is booming, and they’re looking to expand and hire about one or two new full time employees in the next year. The spring water that they bottle comes directly from a spring, known to locals in Speedwell, TN as “cold spring.” Beitz says the water they sell lives up to that reputation.

Cecelia Mason of Shepherd University contributed to this story. She was one of the judges at this year’s Berkeley Springs Water Tasting and Competition.

Investigators: Transporting Bakken Crude Still a Challenge for Railroads

On Sunday, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Railroad Administration announced that its full-scale forensic investigation is now underway in earnest, following last week’s train derailment.

Federal Investigators say it could be weeks before we know what caused the CSX train to derail last Monday.

What is known is that the train was traveling 33 miles per hour (well under the speed limit) when tank cars derailed as they were passing through a Fayette County community called Adena Village.

Nobody died as a result of Monday’s derailment, although there was one very close call. 68-year-old Morris Bounds had a very narrow escape– as the exploding flames overtook his home. He suffered smoke inhalation and lost everything he owned.

“CSX will fully compensate Mr. Bounds for any of his losses,” said CSX representative Skip Elliott.

Mr. Bounds’ neighbors and those in the nearby community of Boomer Bottom were all forced to evacuate their homes last week. They were allowed to return Friday, with the exception of 5 homes immediately next to the site of the derailment.

The Federal Railroad Administration is in charge of investigating the cause of the incident. Sarah Feinberg is the acting administrator and says the train that derailed was transporting about 3 million gallons of a hazardous unrefined oil from South Dakota.

“The crude oil that comes out of the Shale Play in North Dakota is very volatile, very flammable. It’s a lot more like gasoline or jet fuel than anything else,” Feinberg said.

Feinberg says the United States’ push for energy independence is creating new obstacles for the Department of Transportation.

“Some of these challenges are very new to us. How do you move that product from North Dakota to the refineries on the coast?” said Feinberg.

Last week’s accident comes on the heels of a series of train disasters involving the transportation of Bakken Crude, including one along the same route in Lynchburg, Virginia last April. The National Transportation of Safety Board has been investigating that incident, but the findings aren’t expected until this summer.

Sarah Feinberg says her agency is working to find safer solutions that would prevent these types of accidents in the future.

“It’s not just coming up with a better tank car, for transporting this product, but we’re also looking at how the train is operated. One of the most important things we can look at is breaking systems, to make sure that they are stopping and the cars are not piling up on each other, as they did in this case.”

After last week’s accident, tank cars were still smoldering until Thursday night.

Dennis Matlock, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, says first responders made the decision to let them burn out on their own.[They] “initiated a controlled burn, which was a safer option to do anything at that point, it really engulfed a big area. Particulate matter from the burning was probably the number one thing we’re concerned with. A big constituent of this material is Benzene.”

Matlock says nobody was exposed to any harmful amount of Benzene, but this is one of the reasons fire crews had to use caution and give the fire some distance.

None of the tank cars went into the Kanawha River as was initially reported, although an unknown amount of crude oil did leak onto the ground and may have entered Armstrong Creek.

The EPA has confirmed that as ice melted Sunday morning, a small amount of oil entered the Kanawha River. However, ongoing containment strategy and water monitoring has confirmed that there’s been no impact on drinking water or public safety.

How Will Climate Change be Taught in West Virginia Public Schools? Public Comment Period Draws Close

During January’s West Virginia Board of Education meeting, the Board voted to withdraw a controversial new policy that addresses how science teachers should teach climate change to public school students.

Folks have until 4:00 pm Tuesday February 17th, to weigh in on this new policy.

Last December, at the request of West Virginia Board of Education Member Wade Linger, the board proposed new language to its new science standards. That additional language seems to question whether or not climate change is actually happening, and whether humans are causing climate change-despite overwhelming evidence from climate scientists.

BOE member Wade Linger told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that coal miners stand to lose jobs as a result of how climate change is taught in our public schools. He also stressed that the board did not remove any language regarding climate change, it merely added language to the science standards.

Suggested language alterations included:

1) S.6.ESS.6. The text: “Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.” was altered to: “Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise and fall in global temperatures over the past century.” 2) S.9.ESS.14. The text: “Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.” was altered to: “Analyze geoscience data and the predictions made by computer climate models to assess their credibility for predicting future impacts on the Earth System."

During January’s Board of Education meeting, seven people went on the record casting doubt about whether or not humans are causing climate change. About 12 environmentalists, on the other hand, argued that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found overwhelming evidence to support the Theory of Climate Change.

Two separate public events in Morgantown recently discussed ways that climate change could impact for the Mountain State. “Climate Change and Population Health” was the title of a recent discussion at West Virginia University held on February 6th.

The Allegheny Highlands Environmental Impacts Initiative hosted a public discussion February 12th about the risks that climate change could have for West Virginia’s biodiversity. The Allegheny Highlands Environmental Impacts Initiative is sponsored by the Friends of Blackwater.

To make a comment about how you feel climate change should be taught in West Virginia public schools, go to the state’s website:http://wvde.state.wv.us/policies/ . The policy regarding science standards is called 2520. 3C.