Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 19, 1993 TAG: 9310190090
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: Robert Freis
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It could be worse - if you were Linda Robinson.
Today, like every day over the past two years, her world seems like one big eight ball. And she's behind it, trying not to be crushed.
But it's a losing battle. "Right does not win nowadays," she says.
Here's why:
Back in June 1992, Robinson was moving to a new apartment in Radford. She stored about $20,000 worth of belongings - furniture, clothing, appliances, kitchenware, a stereo - in the basement of a temporary warehouse.
While her stuff was there, a nasty thunderstorm poured buckets of rain into a drainage ditch behind the warehouse and caused it to overflow. The water inundated the warehouse's basement and thoroughly soaked Robinson's belongings.
Then, after she pulled the soggy mess outside and left it to dry, someone stole her few salvageable items.
She was shocked, frustrated, angry.
Some people told her that her misfortune, like the rain, was an act of God.
No way I'm playing Job, she replied. "God made the rains, but he didn't clog the drains."
That was Robinson's attitude when I first wrote about her 10 months ago: defiant and bent on justice.
Then, as now, it seemed she had a good case - despite the odds and the obstacles posed by her formidable opposition.
On their part, you've never seen such finger-pointing.
The owner of the warehouse blamed the city of Radford for the flood, saying the municipal drainage system was inadequate to handle the storm water.
The city of Radford blamed Norfolk Southern Corp. for causing the flood by tossing brush and old rail ties into the ditch behind the warehouse.
In fact, after the storm the city took photographs of maintenance crews pulling ties out of a water pipe connected to the ditch.
But Robinson finds herself in a legal limbo.
Legal Aid cannot help her. Robinson makes too much money. She has a decent job at the Radford Army Ammunition Plant but hasn't seen much of her paycheck lately.
Most of that - some weeks all of it - is garnisheed to pay medical bills.
Robinson's only 48, but because she's diabetic her doctor says anxiety and stress are killing her.
Her medical expenses also mean she doesn't have the money to hire a lawyer to take her case.
And the complexity and cost of filing a suit that might involve a municipality, a major corporation and another business have made the case unappealing to local lawyers she has contacted.
So even though she lost all she had through no fault of her own, Robinson now has no affordable legal way of recovering the value of the furnishings lost in the flood.
Meanwhile, she's been living at her sister's apartment, an arrangement that's wearing thin for all concerned.
"I don't have anything," she says.
What's going on here?
That's what I tried to find out. Sometimes a newspaper can open some doors that might be slammed in the face of an individual such as Robinson.
Everybody I spoke with on her behalf said, "Yeah, it's a shame. She really got the shaft."
But nobody offered to help, much less pay for her loss.
Today, 16 months after the flood, Linda Robinson is whipped. Occasionally she considers picketing Radford's municipal building, staging a one-woman demonstration. But she always changes her mind. "It's just a hopeless battle," she concedes.
"I accept now that I'm not going to get anything for my loss. You can't beat the system. It's all about who you are."
I'm not certain about a lot of things regarding this sad tale. I'm left with a lot more questions than answers. But I do know this, for sure:
It ain't right.
Robert Freis is a New River Valley bureau staff writer.
by CNB