Neighbors pitch in to help others during flood

A shrill whistle pierced the quiet of Pitch Landing Road on Tuesday.

“Y’all OK in there?” Matt Cribb yelled from his tiny green boat. “Y’all need a way out?”

Cribb and buddy Blake Martin trolled the area searching for the stranded. They paused by homes that looked like islands amid the flooded Waccamaw River. When they spotted someone, they asked if the person needed anything.

A day earlier, the water covering the road had been shallow enough to wade through. By Tuesday, that walk wasn’t possible.

“It’s deep,” Cribb said. “It’s really deep. There’s water running into people’s houses. Everything they worked for all their life is wet.”

The National Guard arrived in Conway on Monday morning. Local first responders have kept busy assisting the flooded, the stranded and the destitute. But as the river continues to rise, neighbors have stepped up to help each other.

“I just hate to see people going through stuff like this,” Cribb said. “It’s really sad.”

Pitch Landing Road comes off U.S. 701 just south of Conway. On Monday afternoon, Cribb rescued a mother and daughter from a waterfront home in the community. He’d arrived at the landing to help Martin, who plays in the Christian gospel group Glory Train with him and whose own apartment had been flooded. But then Cribb heard about the family’s 911 call and he saw that local emergency crews were tied up helping other people.

So the 35-year-old Conway man put his boat in the water and went door to door looking for the mother and daughter.

He finally found them stuck in an upstairs apartment. They had packed two suitcases.

“They didn’t have no way to get out of here,” he said. “The county’s doing all they could do. ... We was able to load them up in our boat and their stuff with their pets. They had some guinea pigs and some cats.”

A day later, Cribb was back out on the water checking on Pitch Landing residents. This time, Martin was with him.

Before he’d evacuated, Martin had grabbed some clothes, video games and his guitar. He also rumbled his Chevy Silverado through the rising flood.

“I didn’t think old green baby was going to do it,” he said. “It was deep. It was up to my windshield.”

For the 23-year-old, Tuesday’s trip was tough. They stopped by his flooded apartment on Sidewheeler Road, which runs parallel to the river. Cans and flip flops floated beside them as they stood in knee-deep water. Martin started renting the place from a relative about a month ago. It was his first time living on his own.

“This right here was my home,” he said. “First home I ever had. It’s very disheartening, man. … all that we’ve put in it to get it right. My furniture’s gone, flooring’s gone. Everything’s gone, man.”

As he waded through the mess, he searched for and found a small, gnarled cross. It’s called a “clinging cross” and it’s designed to be clutched during prayer. It belonged to his grandmother, whom Martin lived with until she succumbed to cancer in December.

“This is probably one of the most important things in this whole house to me,” he said.

Despite what he’d lost, Martin agreed to venture out in search of stranded neighbors Tuesday. The people Cribb had rescued a day earlier had lived above him.

“This stuff right here is material,” Martin said of his saturated possessions. “Helping people is what we’re all supposed to do.”

Other volunteers also came to assist at the landing this week.

Kenneth Davenport normally would be in class at the Academy for Technology and Academics, but with school canceled he showed up at 7 a.m. Monday to lend a hand. Because he’s a student, the 18-year-old said he wasn’t helping officials with the water rescues, but he did direct traffic and was ready to handle other less intense tasks.

Looking at what is normally a two-lane blacktop, the Conway teen was surprised by how quickly the water had consumed Pitch Landing Road.

“I didn’t think it was going to be that bad,” he said. “We don’t need any more water.”

Although volunteers and rescue workers helped evacuate Pitch Landing Road residents, some folks planned to persevere in their homes.

Ronald Fowler owns about 15 acres in the area and said he and his wife built their home on the highest ground.

“If we’ve really got to leave,” he said, “we’ll just take the boat and come on out.”

During their search Tuesday, Martin and Cribb couldn’t find anyone who wanted to evacuate. One man said someone was bringing him groceries. Other folks insisted they would stick it out.

Cribb didn’t mind. He just wanted them to know that if they needed something, a little green boat with the name Visitation painted on it was there for them.

“I can’t do much,” he said. “But I am going to do all I can do to help people in need.”

This story was originally published October 6, 2015 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Neighbors pitch in to help others during flood."