This article originally provided by WBOY

February 27, 2006

Coalfield Residents Remember Buffalo Creek

Not much has changed since the disaster but history might repeat itself

Story by Nicky Walters

Thirty four years ago, 126 people were killed in the Buffalo Creek Disaster in Logan County.

"It was a horrible day I remember it like yesterday," recalls Arley Johnson. He was twelve years old when the dam at Buffalo Creek gave way. "There were about twenty bodies that we collected where I lived and the dam actually broke 7 or 8 miles up the hollow."

Some people who live in southern West Virginia say they live in fear everyday that the nightmare will repeat itself.

"I'm having to day to day be scared to death if I'm going to live or not see my kids grow up," said Mingo County resident Donetta Blankenship.

She along with several others gathered at the state capitol Monday to watch a video on the Buffalo Creek Disaster and encourage lawmakers to pass House Bill 4583. The bill would prohibit any new permits for disposal of slurry underground and calls for a study of existing coal mine waste sites.

"Its not a matter of if its going to happen. It will happen sooner or later," said Mingo County Resident Billy Sammons. "If it does, that community will not exist."

As Arley Johnson looks back on Buffalo Creek he hopes it won't take another tragedy to bring about change.

"In 1975 the laws began to change. They could no longer set up those kind of impoundments, the earthen dams that were there. But the industry always finds a way to get around the laws."