Death toll climbs to 6 from flooding in West Virginia

The death toll from weekend flooding in West Virginia rose to six as residents tried to clean up with the threat of more rain on the way.

At least two people remained missing in the state’s northern panhandle after torrential downpours Saturday night, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Monday. As much as 4 inches of rain fell in parts of Wheeling and Ohio County within 40 minutes. The dead included a 3-year-old child.

About an hour to the southeast, heavy rains battered the Marion County community of Fairmont on Sunday, ripping off the outer wall of an apartment building and damaging bridges and roads. No injuries were reported there.

Morrisey declared a state of emergency in both counties. At least 60 homes, 25 businesses and an estimated 30 roads were impacted by flooding, he said.

In the northern panhandle, vehicles were swept into swollen creeks, some people sought safety in trees and a mobile home caught fire.

Teena Libe moved her truck to higher ground during the storm, but couldn’t leave her driveway because a bridge connecting her to the road was severely damaged. Her landlord brought her a generator after she lost electric and water service at her Triadelphia residence.

“The whole entire area within 30 seconds was just underwater,” she said. “It’s just a really surreal feeling and shocking how just within minutes it was just complete disaster.”

Rainfall hitting impervious surfaces like roads contributed to the flooding and stormwater management systems were not engineered to handle the sudden downpours that occurred.

“In Fairmont, there is about a 1 in a 100 chance in a given year that 2.5 inches of rain will fall in an hour, so the amount of rainfall that occurred in such a short time is a rare occurrence,” said Brian Tang, an atmospheric science professor at the University at Albany in New York state.

Tang said hilly terrain and soils already saturated from abnormally wet weather contributed to the flash flooding.


(AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)