Flash flood emergency issued in West Virginia
(CNN) — Two people are dead after Tuesday’s severe flooding in north-central West Virginia, Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s office said Thursday afternoon.
Morrisey had said he was “concerned about fatalities” at a news conference in hard-hit Buckhannon, West Virginia, on Thursday morning.
Morrisey’s comments come after heavy rains Tuesday night – in some cases, more than 5 inches in a few hours – led to dangerous flooding in parts of the state, inundating homes, businesses, vehicles and roads and prompting search and rescue efforts in several communities, including by the National Guard.
About 1,000 homes and businesses have been damaged by Tuesday’s flooding in the state, Maj. Gen. Jim Seward, the West Virginia National Guard adjutant general, said Thursday.
Two people had been reported missing and were believed to be in an overturned vehicle that State Police found in Upshur County, the governor said. It is unclear if they are the two people who died.
Police and National Guard members have been unable to reach the vehicle so far due to “dangerous conditions and the significant amount of debris surrounding the vehicle,” the governor said Thursday morning.
Search and recovery efforts in the state, while widespread Tuesday and Wednesday, have now been limited to one area, Morrisey said Thursday. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he was referring to the overturned vehicle. CNN has sought further comment from the governor’s office.
The hardest-hit areas included Upshur, Lewis, and Pleasants counties, where flooding triggered emergency response efforts including dozens of water rescues, the governor’s office said. Roughly 47,000 people live in those three counties, according to US Census estimates.
More than 100 rescues had been made, and more than a dozen helicopters were on standby, Morrisey said Wednesday.
By Thursday, the National Guard was “transitioning our rescue equipment … bringing in more equipment for debris removal over the next few days,” Seward said. The National Guard deployed more than 500 troops across the region because of the floods, Seward said this week.
“More roads have been reopened and we know that many thousands of West Virginians have had their power restored,” the governor said Thursday.
Tuesday’s flooding, which happened as severe storms also spawned tornadoes and damaging winds from Kentucky to New Jersey, prompted Morrisey to declare an emergency for all 55 counties in West Virginia on Tuesday.
“We know that this entire (cleanup and recovery) effort can take some time, but we are encouraged to see that the weather has held,” Morrisey said Thursday. “The rivers … have continued to fall after some historic levels were reached.”
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CNN has reached out to state and local authorities for more information.
“Obviously, right now a lot of people, a lot of volunteers are coming, beginning the muck-up process, the muck-out teams, delivering meals, distributing cleanup kits and coordinating donations from over 80 different organizations,” Morrisey said Thursday. “A lot of that is going to be particularly important in the days and weeks ahead.”
Washed-out roads and impassable streets cut off parts of Buckhannon in Upshur County on Tuesday and Wednesday, making the full extent of the damage difficult to assess, the city said in a Facebook post Wednesday morning.
“This is heartbreaking, this is not something you want to see in your hometown,” Buckhannon Mayor Robbie Skinner said at a Wednesday news conference.
The town of just over 5,000 residents sits about 85 miles northeast of the state capital, Charleston.
In Weston in neighboring Lewis County, a swollen river and creek spilled brown water over streets and parking lots Wednesday, sometimes reaching the doors of homes and buildings, and leaving mud and debris in their wake, aerial video from the West Virginia National Guard showed.
A Walmart in Weston was flooded during the storm, along with the parking lot, photos show. Walmart said the safety of workers and customers is a “top priority” in a statement to CNN.
“We’re heartbroken by the devastation in West Virginia,” the statement read.
Additionally, a car was submerged in a sinkhole in Fayetteville after heavy rains pounded the area.
‘I’ve never seen the water rise as fast’
Storms dropped more than 5 inches of rain in about six hours in parts of Upshur County Tuesday afternoon – the highest amount recorded was 7.6 inches just south of Buckhannon. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency, the highest level of flood warning, and labeled the event as a “particularly dangerous situation.”
Jonny Reed grabbed his young son and rushed out of his house in Buckhannon Tuesday evening as floodwaters rose. One minute after he dashed off his porch, a storage shed floated by, his home surveillance video showed. It was followed shortly after by a felled tree and an upright all-terrain vehicle that looked as though it was driving itself, dragged along by the current.
“I’ve never seen the water rise as fast as it did today,” Reed said in a Tuesday post on Facebook, later telling CNN that his family was safe and the damage to his home was minor.
A video from Buckhannon shot by Evan Bacorn showed a vehicle flooded up to its windows as a garbage container floated down the street. Some drivers tried to power their trucks through the flooding as water splashed over their running boards.
Nearly 10 miles of Interstate 79 were closed Wednesday morning between the communities of Weston and Jane Lew in Lewis County, the state Division of Highways said.
In Jane Lew, the town park was overwhelmed by flooding from nearby Hackers Creek, video from CNN affiliate WDTV showed. Brown, murky water swallowed the base of street signs and submerged the park’s baseball fields.
The flooding reached historic levels. The Sand Run stream gauge near Buckhannon crested above 10.6 feet Tuesday night, shattering the previous record of 8.3 feet set during the devastating 1985 flood. It was the first time in roughly 80 years of record keeping that the gauge had reached major flood stage. In 1985, severe flooding in Upshur County killed 47 people and destroyed thousands of homes and hundreds of businesses.
A five-block stretch of homes along the Buckhannon River was evacuated early Wednesday morning, while all other county residents were advised to shelter in place.
Assessing the extent of the damage was made more difficult Wednesday by communications outages.
The Upshur County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency warned that phone services in the area — including 911 — may experience delays or outages due to disruptions caused by the flooding.
The governor’s emergency declaration allows state agencies to coordinate resources and deploy personnel as needed.
The state’s emergency management team began deploying responders to the most affected areas Tuesday evening, according to Lt. Stephen Lindsey of the Bruceton Brandonville Volunteer Fire Department.
Lindsey and his crew made their way through a maze of flooded roads to reach downtown Weston on Tuesday evening, where floodwater had risen above some stop signs. Responding to 911 calls from residents and others who needed help on the ground, his team rescued seven adults, four children and several pets.
Responders from other counties, some more than three hours away, traveled to affected areas to assist, Lindsey said.
About 7,000 customers across several northern West Virginia counties were without power as of Thursday morning, according to PowerOutage.us. Outages affected Stonewall Jackson Memorial Hospital in Weston, which was using a generator to provide medical care, Morrisey said Wednesday.
The West Virginia Emergency Management Division opened a shelter at Lewis County High School for residents displaced by the flooding. Shelters also are open at Buckhannon Church of the Nazarene and Philippi Middle School, the governor said.
“The devastation across our county is extensive. Businesses, homes, vehicles, and countless personal belongings have been damaged or destroyed, and the full extent of the losses is still unknown,” Lewis County Commissioner Agnes Quinn Queen posted to Facebook Wednesday morning, saying water rescues had been going on for hours.
Even as offers of help pour in, officials in Upshur County are urging people to wait until there is a better sense of the extent of damage.
“At this time, however, volunteers and organizations are asked not to self-deploy to affected areas,” the Upshur County Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said. “Uncoordinated response efforts can create additional safety hazards, increase traffic congestion and complicate ongoing emergency operations.”
Tornadoes and damaging winds out east
Rain largely moved out of West Virginia on Wednesday, but rivers and streams in the central part of the state were forecast to keep rising as runoff moves through the watershed.
The same storm system responsible for the flooding also produced multiple tornadoes and damaging winds farther north and east. Tornadoes were reported in Kentucky, Ohio and New Jersey on Tuesday, including one in Clermont County, Ohio.
Denise Davis, who lives in Clermont County, told CNN affiliate WKRC she brought her grandchildren to the basement as soon as she heard the tornado warning.
“The winds picked up, the lights were flickering, and then I heard a real loud bang, which of course was the tree falling onto the house,” she said.
Davis added that everyone was in a safe position under the basement stairs when the tree fell.
“I cried, and then the grandbabies were crying,” she said, recounting the moment she first saw the tree on her house. “I just don’t know what to do from here.”
Two tornadoes were also observed in northern New Jersey after supercell thunderstorms moved over the area.
More than 100,000 customers across Kentucky, Ohio and New Jersey lost power on Tuesday night, but service had been restored to most by Wednesday midday, when fewer than 21,000 outages remained, according to PowerOutage.us.
Flash flood warnings were issued for New York City Tuesday afternoon, but were lifted later in the evening.
New York City’s sewer system, built more than a century ago, is designed to handle only about 1.75 inches of rainfall per hour.
In recent years, as extreme weather events have become more common, the system has shown its limits. When it backs up under the pressure of large amounts of rainfall in short periods of time, the result is flooded streets in low-lying areas, homes and subway stations.
This story has been updated with additional information.
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