Flash floods triggered by torrential rains killed five people in northern West Virginia on Sunday, and rescue crews were looking for three more individuals who went missing as authorities assessed damage to roads, bridges, natural gas lines, and other infrastructure.
According to officials, 2.5 to 4 inches (6 to 10 centimeters) of rain fell in sections of Wheeling and Ohio County within a half-hour on Saturday night.
“We almost immediately began receiving 911 calls for the rescue of people who were trapped,” Ohio County’s emergency management director, Lou Vargo, said at a news conference Sunday. “During this time, we had significant infrastructure damage to roads, bridges, and highways, which prevented us from responding to many instances. So we were delayed getting there because there was so much destruction.
Vargo stated, “It happened so quickly and so fast.” I have been doing this for 35 years. I’ve witnessed significant floods in both the city and county. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Authorities said that vehicles were pushed into swollen waterways, some individuals took refuge in trees, and a mobile home caught fire.
Similarly, Marion County, south of Wheeling, and Ohio County had rapid flash flooding early Sunday afternoon, inflicting substantial damage to bridges, roads, and even residences, according to a Facebook post from the county’s Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Since the storms began, the county’s 911 line has processed at least 165 calls for service.
On Sunday evening, Governor Patrick Morrisey announced a state of emergency in Marion County.
According to Jim Blazier, the fire chief in Wheeling, in the state’s northern panhandle, teams worked until early Sunday morning to execute rescue operations. He said first responders reassembled Sunday morning and were focusing on a region stretching from the Ohio state line across the Ohio River to Wheeling Creek.
“We’re searching the banks, we’re searching submerged vehicles, any debris we find along the trail and so forth,” Blazier told reporters. “We’re using drones, search dogs and swift water personnel, and we have teams organized that are searching sectors that we’re trying to recover anybody that’s missing.”
Morrisey stated in a news release Sunday evening that there were around 2,500 documented power outages in the county on Sunday, bringing the total number of verified deaths to five, with three more missing. He proclaimed a state of emergency in Ohio County and summoned the National Guard to assist with emergency operations.
“In many respects, this is kind of a unicorn event, because a lot of the rain had very narrow areas and there were roughly 3 to 4 inches of water that fell in the area in less than an hour,” Morrisey said at a press conference earlier Sunday. “That’s very, very difficult to deal with.”
He went on to say, “Your friends, neighbors, first responders, and community members are out there looking for people.” That’s our first priority right now, identifying everybody who may still be out there.”
The West Virginia rains followed torrential rains in San Antonio on Thursday, which killed 13 people. More than 7 inches (18 cm) of rain fell in the Texas city over the course of several hours, forcing fast-rising floodwaters to take more than a dozen cars into a stream.
