John Woods, Class of 1957, lives in Raleigh, where WVU’s football game with North Carolina State was cancelled because of the impending landfall of Hurricane Florence.

When Florence made landfall in Wilmington, she punted south and away from John.

John tells it better:

“We were originally projected to have very high winds and 10-12 inches of rain.  But when the storm turned south at Wilmington instead of moving straight up to Raleigh, we were just on the outer fringes. We had some wind gusts up to 50 mph, rained almost steady from Thursday afternoon until Sunday evening but still only about 5". So our area is good.

“However, about 50 miles southeast of Raleigh (like New Bern and Fayetteville) the swells have caused major flooding and other problems.  And of course Wilmington (Wrightsville beach) is where the eye of storm made landfall.  My son lives about 2 miles directly in from the beach and they were hit hard -- still has not been able to get in to see the damage.

“Hope other Monongah-related people who live down here fared as well as I did.

“John Woods

“Class of 1957”

John’s wife, Ardyss, who was from Maine, passed away in 2014.

He’s an IBM retiree and math graduate of Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

As John explains, “We have been gone from West Virginia for a long time.  My wife and I moved to Raleigh in 1966 (52 years ago) and our sons were both born here in Raleigh.  So they are not related to Monongah nor North Marion at all.  We moved to Raleigh when I hired on with IBM in Raleigh.

“My sister, Harriet (Jane Woods) was at Monongah High when you were -- she graduated in 1949.”

John is the youngest child of Helen Boydoh Woods, whose other children are Harriet Jane Woods, Class of 1949; Bill Woods, Class of 1952, whose widow is Dorothy Browning Woods, Class of 1955, a Registered Nurse living in Indiana; and Shirley Woods DeMarco Merchant, a schoolteacher in Akron, Ohio, which borders on Tallmadge, where Paula and I live.

John and Bill Meredith, Class of 1957, who has homes in Sarasota, Florida and Buckeye Lake, Ohio, have been friends since first grade at East Monongah Grade School through Monongah High School, just like Bob Kasper, Class of 1950, and myself, also Class of 1950, although Bob and I attended Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic School in Monongah.

John’s father, Bill Woods, was Bill Meredith’s Sunday School teacher and a father figure to Bill Meredith because Bill’s dad passed away when Bill was six years old, which would have made Bill’s sister, Pat Meredith, Class of 1950, about 13 at the time.

John and Bill Meredith both were on the Monongah High football team.
 
Warren Sloan, a 1983 North Marion graduate who has lived in South Carolina since 1984, and wife Kathy had only minor damage to their trees in Conway, reports Warren's sister, Joeline Sloan-Swann, 1981 North Marion graduate.

Joeline works in the WVU Extension Service and is a Fairmont State graduate who lives with husband Randy in Rivesville, where my sister, Jackie Olesky Straight, Class of 1955, resides on Paw Paw Creek Road.

Their late father, also Warren Sloan, was Monongah and Rivesville police chief and a former Monongah councilman. His other children are Randy Carpenter of Monongah and Lark Dunbar, who lives in Rivesville with husband Tom.

 
Greg Urban, Class of 1966, son of Stanley Urban, Jr. and grandson of Stanley Urban, Sr., was smacked with high winds and rain but he came out of it OK. He’s a stock trader in Denver, North Carolina.

His sister, Brenda Urban, reports “We were spared in Surfside Beach, South Carolina (about 30 miles from Myrtle Beach). A great deal of wind and rain but there was damage to some of the units around me. Drainspouts broke off and one lady had her glass porch door shattered. Her whole porch was glass-enclosed but the door shattered everywhere.

“No Trees down in our area. We were very fortunate.”

Brenda Urban is a Fairmont State business administration graduate.

Greg was valedictorian of his class.

Greg and Brenda’s brother is the late Mark Urban, Class of 1969. Mark passed away in 2016 in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Josephine Smolanovich Jurasko Urban is Class of 1932, the same year that Julia Urban graduated from Monongah High.

Sally Wood Tarley, Class of 1959, who lives on iHiHilton Head Island in South Carolina, escaped any harm from Hurricane Florence.

When I inquired, she replied:

“John,

“Hilton Head Island was spared from Hurricane Florence.  We didn’t even get any rain. There was a mandatory evacuation  (that was lifted the next day) and all the tourists left and many islanders.  But it was all for naught! 

“We are now back to what I call ‘normal.’ “

If other Monongah High alumni had experiences with Hurricane Florence, email John Olesky at jo4wvu@neo.rr.com with as many details as possible, MHS graduation years, spouses, children, etc. and I’ll post them on this Monongah High Alumni blog. Lions like to keep track of fellow Lions.