Some of the worst flooding in West Virginia “in 100 years” has left at least four people dead, including one child.
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Three power companies in the state were experiencing outages on Thursday night, leaving tens of thousands of people without power. In Greenbrier, a flaming house could be seen floating down a creek. He says they expect that the vehicles will be used to transport emergency services personnel through high water for damage assessments and to help anyone in danger.
Elsewhere, Joe Coughlin of Greenbrier County Homeland Security & Emergency Management said some first responders there are picking people up at their homes by boat and bringing them to shelters.
Officials said the four-year-old boy fell into the water outside his home in Ravenswood when he was swept away on Thursday. The boy had been walking with his mother and sister on Thursday when he slipped into the creek, according to the Intelligencer.
A toddler was missing and hundreds of thousands of customers were without power Thursday night after flash floods washed across West Virginia, authorities said. He says the Jackson River and creeks in the area have crested and damage assessment teams are headed out Friday morning.
One of those rescued from the top of his roof was Paul Moya, who is diabetic.
“I just did the toughest thing I’ll ever have to do”, his heartbroken father wrote on Facebook.
“We surely need your prayers, because there’s a lot of people hurting right now”, Greenbrier Resort owner Jim Justice told The Weather Channel.
The Nicholas County Nursing & Rehabilitation Center in Richwood was also evacuated, said the city’s mayor, Robert Johnson.
‘We pretty much live in a bowl, and the bowl filled with water, ‘ he told the Associated Press. The train’s route takes it through some of the heaviest areas of flooding, including White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., with long stretches of track following the New River.
Chris Stadelman, who is Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s communications director, said Friday morning that three people died in Kanawha County and a fourth died in Wheeling.
The NWS originally reported that the dam at Summit Lake was breached by flood waters, but the dam remained intact.
The storms spurred Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin to declare a state of emergency for 44 counties, excluding the northern and eastern panhandles.
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An isolated area along the West Virginia-Virginia border received at least 9 inches of rain while other parts of the state had 3 to 5 inches, National Weather Service hydrologist John Sikora said.
