Community groups plan new Sunburst Drive bridge after Gary flood damage

Residents on Sunburst Drive in Gary were cut off for months after February flooding destroyed their only vehicle bridge, forcing some to walk about a mile and a half each way along railroad tracks just to reach their cars. Now community groups led by Creepalachia are working on a new bridge plan, but neighbors say the temporary access road is still not enough for daily life in a flood-prone corner of McDowell County.

The bridge was lost during the Feb. 15-18, 2025 West Virginia flood disaster, and FEMA later listed the incident for McDowell County with Individual Assistance declared Feb. 26 and Public Assistance declared March 19. Because the old span on Sunburst Drive was privately owned, state bridge-repair money could not be used to rebuild it, leaving local officials and private partners to improvise a fix.

That stopgap arrived Sept. 24, 2025, when crews finished a temporary access road that included nearly a quarter mile of new road cut across a steep slope and upgrades to an existing roadway. The project also removed the remains of the old bridge from the Tug Fork River. West Virginia DEP, the Division of Highways, McDowell County, Norfolk Southern Railroad and private companies all played a role. Taishan Resources cleared debris and removed the bridge remnants from the river, while Baystar Coal Company bought and hauled 365 tons of gravel and provided heavy equipment. McDowell County coordinated an excavator, truck, crews and 90 tons of asphalt millings.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey called it an example of West Virginians “pulling together to solve a problem,” and McDowell County Commissioner Cecil Patterson called it a team effort. Even so, residents say the access road is narrow, exposed to weather and shares space with coal-truck traffic, which is why many still want a full replacement bridge instead of relying on the temporary fix.

Creepalachia’s J.D. Belcher, who said he grew up in McDowell County and wants to help the community, said the group has been working through legal ownership questions and that Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster is engineering the bridge project to get a design quote. A fundraising campaign is expected later. In a county of 19,111 people, where the median household income was $31,559 and the poverty rate was about 34.2% in 2024, a single bridge can determine whether a neighborhood in Gary, a town of about 762 to 773 residents, stays connected or gets stranded.