A West Virginia official says multiple fatalities have been reported in flooding that has devastated parts of the state.
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“The flooding marks the worst in history for Greenbrier and Nicholas counties, said Kim Gross, a representative for Gov. Tomblin”, ABC News reported.
In his emergency proclamation, Tomblin said some areas had been rendered inaccessible as rock and mud slides, along with rushing floodwaters, knocked out roads and bridges.
Storms began on Thursday morning, leaving approximately 40,000 people without power throughout the day.
Elsewhere, Joe Coughlin of Greenbrier County Homeland Security & Emergency Management says some first responders there are picking people up at their homes by boat and bringing them to shelters.
Officials did not immediately identify the victims, although local reports said one of those killed in Ohio County was an 8-year-old who had slipped into a creek and was carried away.
“We had swift water rescue teams out until late last night and back out again this morning literally rescuing people from rooftops and upper stories of houses”, Stadelman said.
“We surely need your prayers because there’s a lot of people hurting right now”, Jim Justice, owner of the luxury Greenbrier Resort, told The Weather Channel.
The resort said in a news release that “torrential rains” fell throughout the day Thursday, causing “heavy flooding throughout the resort and in surrounding areas”. “Even though the rain has stopped, there is still an emergency flood situation across most of the county….”
The Virginia Department of Transportation warns that more than a dozen Alleghany County roads were closed Friday morning due to flooding. The death toll was expected to increase, said Greenbrier County Sheriff Jan Cahill, who described “complete chaos” in his county, which appeared to be the hardest hit.
Jackson County 911 Communications Director Walter Smittle said people in a trailer park left voluntarily as the water rose.
“I said, ‘They found Manny, ‘” he said.
Emergency crews were working to rescue the hundreds of shoppers and employees trapped at Elkview Crossings Mall after the overpass bridge collapsed Thursday night, according to WSAZ.
The boy’s death was among at least four deaths during the epic flooding in West Virginia.
Virginia also suffered from flooding after severe weather struck, prompting Gov. Terry McAuliffe to declare a state of emergency for Alleghany County and the City of Covington.
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The service says the tornado touched down 3 miles northeast of Richwood and ended in Greenbrier County, damaging mostly trees and power poles. Tens of thousands of people were without power at the peak of the storm.
