HUMMER CLUB TO HELP FLOOD VICTIMS MEMBERS WILL TAKE TOUGH VEHICLES TO REMOTE AREAS




Byline: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


All-terrain vehicle enthusiasts bent on helping flood victims will try to show this week that no road is too washed out, no hollow too banked with mud and no stream too swollen to stop the mighty humvee.
"This group is very civic minded and they love to use their hummers for productive things as well," said Ron Bomhoff, president of The Hummer Club Inc.
Bomhoff and about 130 more enthusiasts driving some 60 hummers are expected to begin arriving in Beckley today for Country Roads 2001, which was planned months before last weeks' fatal flash flooding devastated much of Southern West Virginia.
The Malibu, Calif.-based group had planned to split up and spend at least three days this week winding over hills and through creeks in Fayette and Raleigh counties - and helping to transport state Department of Environmental Protection workers to remote streams for testing.
After hearing about the washed-out bridges and residents stranded in isolated hollows, the club decided to split up even further and send at least 10 vehicles each day to help the state Office of Emergency Services.
"I've talked to the club members already in West Virginia preparing for the event and there is a lot of enthusiasm for helping with this relief effort," Bomhoff said.
OES Director Steve Kappa was also excited when he heard the news Saturday.
Kappa, who drove hummers while serving in the military, immediately got out his map and started planning where he could send the trucks, which are widely considered among the toughest and most versatile all-terrain vehicles in the world.
"In Fayette County, there is Mulberry Hollow Road that is no longer accessible because of torrential flooding," Kappa said. "There are about four to five families there that we've been helping."
In Raleigh County, there's Clear Creek, a hollow where as many as 20 families have been isolated, he said. And in Ameagle, washed-out bridges have left several more families stranded.
"Many people have lost their single source of transportation so having added resources like the Hummer Club will be particularly useful," Kappa said.
The Hummer Club has held its Country Roads event in West Virginia for the past two years. Last fall it kicked off its partnership with the DEP's Water Restoration Group.
A group of at least 10 vehicles will once again transport the workers, which collect watershed information that help restore West Virginia streams affected by coal mine drainage and other land-use sources.
"These vehicles can get us right where we need to go so we can get our watershed characterizations done ... and their owners enjoy the challenges of West Virginia's off-road trails," said Greg Adolfson, manager of the Stream Restoration Group.
Hummers, which first hit the market in 1992, are produced by AM General in Mishawka, Ind. They are the civilian version of the military Humvee, which has been in production since 1984 and became an automotive celebrity through media footage of the Gulf War.
There are more than 5,000 Hummer owners in the United States, but according to AM General officials, fewer than 1,000 expose their Hummers to extreme off-road terrain.