At least 20 people have died due to the flooding, including three in Kanawha County.
Late Friday morning, authorities confirmed that the body of a 4-year-old boy, who was swept away by high water in Ravenswood on Thursday, had been recovered. At about the same time, Greenbrier County Sheriff Jan Cahill confirmed two people were killed by the flooding.
Cahill didn’t have details on those deaths, but said he wouldn’t be surprised if more people were killed. Earlier Friday, Greenbrier emergency officials said several people had been reported missing.
One man drowned in the Elk River at Clendenin, in the area of Frame Road, on Thursday night, and an 8-year-old boy’s body was recovered from Big Wheeling Creek on Thursday night after he was pulled downstream by the rushing water earlier in the day.
Kanawha Metro 911 spokeswoman Brooke Hylbert said Friday morning that emergency responders learned of two more deaths in Kanawha County overnight, a woman on Wills Creek Road in Elkview and an elderly person on Poca Fork Road in Frame. She believed the woman’s car was swept away by flood waters and the elderly person was stranded in a home. She said emergency responders had been unable to get to the elderly person.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin declared a state of emergency for 44 counties Thursday evening. According to a news release Friday morning, he has also authorized 150 members of the West Virginia National Guard to assist local first responders as they evaluate the situation today.
In Kanawha County, the Dunbar-South Charleston bridge, commonly known as the Dunbar Toll Bridge, was closed after it was struck by loose barges on the Kanawha River, Hylbert said.
She said the bridge would stay closed until the state Division of Highways inspected it and declared it safe. The bridge was reopened by about 10 a.m.
The Nitro-St. Albans Bridge was also struck and closed for several hours, but was reopened Friday morning after a DOT inspection, Hylbert said. The Interstate 64 bridge over the Kanawha River near Nitro was briefly closed overnight as a precaution while the barges were on the river, but it was never struck, Hylbert said.
Emergency responders in Kanawha County had to suspend many rescue efforts Thursday night as darkness fell. There were about 30 active water rescue calls in Kanawha County at 6 a.m. Friday, Hylbert said, mostly held over from Thursday night. By 9 a.m., there were 64 active, emergency high-water calls.
The Elk River at Queen Shoals in Kanawha County set a record when it reached 33 feet, said Dave Marsalek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston. The previous record there was 32 feet, set in 1888. Flood stage for the river there is 19 feet.
“The Elk is a mess right now,” said Marsalek.
By noon, the Elk at Queen Shoals had dropped to 30 feet, said NWS meteorologist Andrew Beavers.
Most rivers in the state were receding, he said.
In Clay, the river reached 30 feet; flood stage is 18 feet. By 6 a.m. Friday, it was at 23 feet, and by noon, it had reached 12.5 feet.
The Kanawha River was at 28.7 feet at the South Side Bridge in Charleston early Friday morning. Flood stage is 30 feet. The forecast early Friday was that the river would flood in Charleston, but Marsalek was skeptical of that. At noon, the river level was 29.9 feet, just below flood stage, and Beavers said it should begin falling.
Other rivers that overflowed their banks including the Gauley, Cherry and Cranberry, Marsalek said. At Camden-on-Gauley, he said, the Gauley River reached an all-time high of 29 feet about 10 p.m. Thursday, and then the weather service’s reporting station there stopped recording as the water was still rising.
White Sulphur Springs got 9.17 inches of rain over the past 48 hours, Beavers said, the most in the state. Charleston had 3.35 inches of rain during the same period.
According to the state Division of Highways, U.S. 119 was closed near Herbert Hoover High School and near the Clendenin exit of Interstate 79 in Kanawha County. Other roads closed for high water Friday morning included W.Va. 20 at Webster Springs and at Rainelle, W.Va. 82 between Cowen and Birch River, W.Va. 41 at the Nicholas-Fayette county line, W.Va. 92 at the Greenbrier-Pocahontas county line, U.S. 219 in Greenbrier County at the Spring Creek Bridge and W.Va. 39 in Summersville.
A woman was killed on the West Virginia Turnpike around 1:45 a.m. Friday after she was hit by a truck while she was changing a tire, but Hylbert said her death was not flood-related.
Kanawha County officials and West Virginia State Police held a press conference at the Ned Chilton 911 Center Friday morning. They urged residents not to travel to flood-ravaged areas to sight-see, and those making non-emergency 911 calls to be patient. Dr. Michael Brumage, executive director of the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, asked residents not to wade into muddy waters due to the health dangers of sewage, chemicals or electrical wires.
Kanawha emergency officials also urged residents to stay off the roads.
Dale Petry, director of Kanawha County Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said Kanawha County Metro 911 had responded to 64 emergency high-water calls as of 9 a.m., and had completed 71 water rescues.
Officials said many emergency responders had been working for more than 24 hours.
C.W. Sigman, Kanawha deputy emergency manager, said during the news conference that first responders had just gained access to Clendenin. Clendenin, as well as Frame and Elkview, were the hardest-hit areas in Kanawha County.
“There’s a lot of just utter devastation in some areas,” Sigman said. “The homes are gone.”
A shelter has been set up at Shoals Elementary. It lost power Friday morning but is still open.
In Webster County, 12 water rescues were performed overnight, according to Richard Rose, county emergency manager. He said they included “everything from vehicles to campers to boats to homes knocked off the foundation and numerous propane tanks floating down the river.”
He said they don’t know of any deaths, but noted they are just starting to assess damage this morning and some people may not have been able to access help.
“The other bad part is all of our cell phones are down and internet’s out in the county,” he said.
In Jackson County, winds blew a manufactured home from its foundation, according to Walter Smittle, 911 director. Two people inside were injured, taken to the hospital and released.
In Nicholas County, emergency responders said this morning that they were just starting to assess damage as well, but that emergency shelters had been set up at the Liberty Baptist Church in Richwood, Powell Mountain Church in Birch River, Birch River Elementary School, Cottle First Church of God near Craigsville, and Summersville Baptist Church.
In Greenbrier County, a dispatcher said active water rescue calls were ongoing this morning.
“It’s just a steady stream of calls,” she said.
She said emergency shelters were set up at the White Sulphur Springs Civic Center and the Rhema Christian Center in Lewisburg, among other places.
Sgt. P.J. Cochran of the Summers County Sheriff’s Department said that two firefighters had to be rescued after their raft flipped at about 2:30 a.m. Friday. He said Friday afternoon that the Greenbrier River was still rising and emergency responders were actively responding to calls for water rescues.
“We’re pretty much having issues from the Greenbrier County line all the way down to Hinton city limits,” he said.
A Summers county dispatcher said she was overwhelmed by flooding-related calls and couldn’t answer questions.
Roger Bryant, director of the Logan County Office of Emergency Management, said Logan County escaped damage but emergency responders from the county assisted Clay County, which was hard-hit. He said his team alone evacuated six people and six dogs. He said the Clay County 911 center was flooded by two feet of water and Nicholas County had to dispatch calls for the county.
According to the Appalachian Power website, about 32,000 customers were without power at about 8 a.m. Among the totals included nearly 11,000 in Kanawha County, 2,400 in Greenbrier County, 3,000 in Fayette County, 1,800 in Clay County, 1,200 in Logan County, 1,000 in McDowell County, 2,100 in Nicholas County, 1,200 in Raleigh County, 2,200 in Roane County, and 2,300 in Wayne County.
Shortly before 1 p.m., nearly 30,000 customers remained without power.
According to the MonPower website, nearly 35,000 customers were without power in West Virginia at about 8 a.m. That included 18,000 in Greenbrier County, 1,700 in Clay County, 1,000 in Braxton County, 3,100 in Monroe County, 2,300 in Nicholas County, 1,800 in Pocahontas County, and 3,100 in Webster County.
Shortly before 1 p.m, about 33,000 customers remained without power.
The state Republican Party, which is holding its convention in Charleston this weekend, asked its delegates to donate cleaning supplies, toiletries, hygiene items and non-perishable food during the event at the Charleston Town Center Marriott.
City officials, for a second day, postponed the opening of their new splash pad at Magic Island. They were meeting Friday morning about the planned Live on the Levee concert as part of the city’s FestivALL celebration.
The Emergency Room at Beckley ARH Hospital is prepared to receive an overflow of patients from Greenbrier Valley Medical Center.
The Hospital received a phone call at 2 a.m. to plan for the possibility of patients. They now have extra staff and are on the lookout for patients suffering from hypothermia or may need oxygen after losing electricity.
———
©2016 The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.)
Visit The Charleston Gazette (Charleston, W.Va.) at www.wvgazette.com
