| Notes |
- WSMV - Nashville TV News Report, Dec 14, 1998
Community to guard residents against natural disasters
December 14, 1998 When it comes to floods, tornadoes and bad weather, it seems there?s little communities can do to guard against disaster.
But in Lincoln County, residents are hoping to become disaster-resistant.
The Fayetteville community is the first in the state to receive a half -million dollar grant called Project Impact.
The grant will help the area buy warning systems and other equipment that could one day save lives.
Many people move into small communities with a false sense of security.
?Oh, the first night here, we slept like babies. It felt like home the first night we moved in,? says Sheila Manley, a Fayetteville resident. ?Five new bedrooms, a showcase kitchen ? Since we moved over here, I?ve cooked every night.?
Manley has felt nothing but peace since moving into a new home three weeks ago. But the picture wasn?t always so rosy. Her former home sat behind a creek that often flooded.
?When it would start raining, (we would) pick up our chair and turn it to the front door. If it rained all night, we stayed up all night,? remembers Manley.
Manley?s parents helped clear the waterlogged home, one of several properties the City of Fayetteville has purchased. Their goal: to help people like Manley move to dryer ground. But this community knows that preventing disaster is out of its control.
Since 1990, Lincoln County has been hit with three federally declared disasters. Two of them were major floods. And last year, a tornado reduced a string of rural homes to rubble.
?What we are trying to do is better protect ourselves,? says Lynn Wampler, the city administrator.
Wampler recently returned from Washington, D.C., where he learned that Fayetteville will receive a half-million dollar grant to buy eleven warning sirens and two generators.
?If there is a loss of power, we will still have water flowing into the community,? says Wampler. [1]
|
, d. 27 Jul 1993 (Age 76 years) 