Roads are so bad in Clay County, West Virginia, that Stephanie Taylor has to take her mail trucks to the repair shop every two to three months to have tires patched or realigned, brakes maintained and struts replaced.
The mail carrier contractor compared the roads she drives through the communities of Wallback, Maysel and Procious during her daily route to a coffee table with 15 coffee cups and four cereal bowls scattered on top of it.
“You have to dodge potholes to be hittin’ bigger potholes. They’re rough,” Taylor, a lifelong Clay County resident, said.
But it’s not just potholes. Last year, she had to alter her route for six months in order to dodge an area of Hansford Fork Road that eroded down the side of a hill “like a mudslide.”
“It’s just something that you have learned to live with all your life and you just do it,” Taylor said. “If you can’t get through one way, you know three other ways to get around it.”
It’s a common way of thinking for drivers in the area.
Beverly King, the county’s recently retired ambulance service director, who served in the role for 17 years, said some roads that would otherwise serve as shortcuts during dispatches are not accessible.
