June 2016 – WEST VIRGINIA – At
least 23 people, including an 8-year-old boy who was wading in a foot
of water, died in massive floods in West Virginia from a storm system
that has dumped a historic amount of rain in parts of the state, state
officials said Friday. As much as 8-10 inches of rain fell in six to
eight hours in parts of West Virginia, the National Weather Service
said. This amount of rain in such a short time is likely a
“one-in-a-thousand-year event,” the weather service said.
It was the third-deadliest flood on
record in West Virginia, according to the West Virginia state
climatologist Kevin Law. Only the Buffalo Creek flood in 1972 (when 125
died after a dam break) and a November 1985 flood (when 38 died from a
combination of Hurricane Juan’s remnants and another storm) killed more
in the state, Law said. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin told reporters Friday that
damage is widespread and devastating. Saying search and rescue missions
are still a top priority, Tomblin issued a state of emergency for 44
counties and deployed 150 members of the National Guard to help
emergency responders.
The flooding was “among the worst in a
century” for some parts of West Virginia, ABC News quoted the governor
as saying. Tomblin’s chief of staff, Chris Stadelman, said 14 deaths had
been confirmed by the state medical examiner. But local sheriffs and
rescue workers across the state confirmed others not yet included in the
state’s official tally, the Associated Press reported. Sheriff Jan
Cahill of Greenbrier county, one of the hardest hit areas, said at least
13 were killed there. Three were killed in Kanawha County and one each
in Ohio and Jackson counties.
The body of Emanual Williams, 8, was
recovered in Big Wheeling Creek in the Elm Grove area of Wheeling, The
Wheeling Intelligencer reported. The newspaper said the boy was walking
with his sister and mother in a foot of water in the creek when he
slipped and was carried away by strong currents. One of the 500 people
stranded overnight at a shopping mall said rescuers used a rope to help
him and others down a steep slope behind the Crossings Mall in Elkview,
about 12 miles from Charleston. Eric Blackshire, who is 48, said that he
decided to get a hotel room at the mall on Thursday because a rock
slide had blocked his way home to Walton. Then the bridge to the mall
washed out during heavy rainfall, stranding people there overnight.
In Nicholas County, much of the town of
Richwood was inundated by high water from the Cherry River, forcing the
relocation of a nursing home. In nearby Greenbrier County, the grounds
of the 238-year-old Greenbrier Resort, a National Historic Landmark,
were partially flooded by water from Howard’s Creek. The heavy rains and
rising water swamped towns, inundated a two-century old resort and
trapped 500 people in a shopping center when a bridge was washed out.
The storm also knocked out power to 66,000 West Virginians, and forced
the shut off of gas in the town of White Sulphur Springs, Tomblin said.
The governor said 60 roads were closed,
many of them destroyed, bridges were knocked out, and homes were
burned down and washed off foundations. He said water rescue teams
searched devastated areas looking for possible victims. “It’s been a
long 24 hours, and the next 24 hours may not be any easier,” the
governor said. Greenbrier County Sheriff Jan Cahill described “complete
chaos” in his county from the flooding, according to the Associated
Press. –USA Today
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento