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While reporting on food insecurity in Clay, WV, people kept talking about "The Flood." I eventually realized that The Flood neatly illustrates the long term impact of catastrophic events on already vulnerable communities; pertinent now that the pandemic's end is in sight [THREAD]
The Flood occurred when torrents of rain came down in summer, 2016. The Elk River rose to record heights and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. There were fish swimming in the HS locker room. 23 people died https://www.wvpublic.org/news/2016-07-02/clay-county-begins-to-rebuild-after-record-flood-destroys-hundreds-of-homes
People in Clay talk about The Flood in an almost Biblical way, and that's because it totally changed the county. Businesses went under, families moved, Main Street emptied out, and the county's lone grocery store left--this was big
@BecherKimberly, a physician in Clay, told me that after The Flood, perhaps predictably, more of her patients went hungry... but she also noticed that many were coming to her overweight, with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and heart problems
Without the grocery store the only nearby food options were the dollar stores and gas stations. Dr. Becher went into the Family Dollar and advised her patients to eat healthfully with what was there (not easy), but people got used to eating canned, packaged, frozen foods
When another grocery store tried to open in Clay it quickly shut down. A third suffered a similar fate. Now there's no major grocery store in the county, people struggle to get food, and, maybe counterintuitively, the prevalence of obesity is over 40%
It would be wrong to trace all of this back to The Flood--there are historical, systemic things at work here--but it did set off a chain of events that cascaded into a bleak reality. The pandemic is sure to have a similar effect in Clay and other vulnerable communities
There are salves. Example: in late March, a local couple opened a small grocery store called Small Town Market in Clay. They're doing well, selling produce and meat. But eating habits formed after The Flood won't break easy. The damage, from water or virus, will still be there
