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Flood 41 It Got Us This Time Cusp of spring after the winter they converted from coal to oil. Ground frozen, so the tank nests in the basement. Snow snow snow slopes, valleys thick with it. Then, at the birth of April, rain in torrents. Strip-mine benches, clear-cut hills can’t hold it. Cumberland River, coal-silted, can’t either. On and on water comes over roads up basement steps under front door through windows River rising in the house Daddy gone to town to save Jo and his business. Mother sick but carrying all she can upstairs then heading for higher ground. From Bailey’s Loop above the railroad she watches Rio Vista fill like a sinkful of dirty dishes Next day when rain stops and nature pulls the plug 42 Flood they go home to find what everybody finds: no heat, light, water just flood mud and ruin and for them, something else: oil—the sick slick of it— smearing everything. River had cracked that tank against the joists like an egg. ...

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