EGGLESTON, Va. – Clean up is in full swing in Giles County after Hurricane Helene caused massive flooding along the New River.
One area that was hit hard was the Eggleston Springs Campground.
“It’s affected everything,” said Becca Ratcliff, co-owner of the campground. “Our house was completely flooded. We rode out the storm in our house, on our bed with our four dogs.”
She said they have lost almost everything.
“I was afraid that was going to be it,” Ratcliff said. “That our house was going to be washed away, and we would be gone.”
But now that the river is back to normal, folks are out doing what they can to clean and rebuild.
One group that came out to help with the clean up is a fraternity at Virginia Tech.
They said this is their community too.
“The first thing I saw was the river flooded,” said Reagan Schermerhorn, a freshman at Virginia Tech. “I thought that was a lot, but then I looked over. There was trailers flipped over, powerlines, debris everywhere.”
She was not the only one surprised by what she saw though.
“My jaw dropped a little bit because they were telling us, we got a little tour of the campground, the water was above the trailers and it’s just like, wow,” said Jake Gofton, a junior at Virginia Tech. “There’s stuff at the top of trees. It’s just a lot.”
Ratcliff said seeing all the support for their small community has been special.
“Even with worse devastation, there is still people that are willing to help us is just incredible and it’s a big thank you,” Ratcliff said.
Though many of the students are not from this area, they said this is the right thing to do for our community.
If you would like to get involved to help, you can find a GoFundMe for the campground here, or you can message them directly on Facebook here.