ELK GARDEN — Elk Garden residents rallied to the town’s aid during the weekend blizzard, using their own equipment to clear streets after the municipality's lone plow truck became disabled as the powerful storm broke on the mountaintop community.
Town Councilman Kevin Broadwater credited a half-dozen individuals and business owners with mounting the dogged volunteer effort on behalf of the town's 215 residents.
“Our town truck was down and these guys volunteered their equipment and their time to help us,” Broadwater said.
Those who helped plow the town streets included Jody Paugh of Wise Guy's Stone, Scotty Paugh, Bryan Lambka, Stanley Lambka and Dave Tichnell of D&L Coal, which provided a loader to help remove the massive piles of plowed snow. Also pitching in were Elk Garden Mayor Buddy Stonebraker and Broadwater himself.
“We really appreciated them helping out,” said Robin Broadwater, Kevin's wife. “There were a lot of people working together.”
With the town's lone three-quarter-ton plow inoperable, Elk Garden risked being snowed in, as the storm eventually dumped more than 33 inches, preventing all travel on non-plowed roads. But when the call was issued informally for help, residents responded. And not just for a few hours.
“We worked day and night,” Broadwater said. “We had to stay on it.”
Broadwater recalled looking through the windshield of the plow truck around 9 p.m. Friday and being overwhelmed by the storm's intensity. “It was like you were in a fog (of snow),” he said.
With the governor's declaration of a state of emergency, military reserve units were dispatched around the state to help clear snow-bound roads. The units reportedly lent a hand at Fort Ashby, New Creek and Mount Storm, among other areas, but not at Elk Garden.
“We took care of it, so they were able to go to other places and help,” Broadwater said.
As for conditions on the mountain Monday: “Our roads are mostly bare,” the councilman said.
