CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Strong storms moved through the Kanawha Valley Wednesday night bringing with them strong winds and heavy rain.
High water and flooding was reported throughout the Kanawha County.
“The hardest hit areas appear to be South Charleston, Davis Creek, South Hills areas, Tornado, Smith Creek, St. Albans, West Side, Green Valley Drive and that general area south of the Kanawha River west of Charleston,” said Kanawha County Fire Coordinator C.W. Sigman.
High water was also reported in Cross Lanes and Sissonville. The Virginia Street underpass near a city fire station was flooded as well.
Rock Lake Drive and Chestnut Street were also flooded near the railroad tracks in South Charleston. Resident Sheila Crider wasn’t able to get home because of the flooding, which she said was higher than normal.
“It’s amazing. I have never seen anything like this,” she said. “I’ve lived here for about seven years and this area usually floods but I have never seen it this bad.”
Flooding near Rock Lake Drive and Indiana Street was several feet deep after the storms moved through. Mark Roberts lives on Indiana Street in South Charleston and he couldn’t believe what he saw.
“I’ve lived here for 49 years, I’ve seen this happen time and time again but as I’ve told everyone else, I’ve never seen it this bad,” Roberts said.
Because of all the flooding and high water, Kanawha County dispatchers were flooded with calls of people stranded. Sigman said there were too many to mention.
“There have been a bunch of water rescues, I don’t have a good count on it, but almost all of them were just people stranded in cars or people who were stranded in their homes who were not in immediate peril, just couldn’t get out,” he said.
At the Court Street underpass, three people were trapped in a car that got stuck in the water. All three were able to wade out of the water with the help of some people passing by. Sigman said that they had no reports of anyone getting hurt.
To make matters worse, Sigman said their was several reports of trees down on buildings.
“The City of Charleston has had some trees into buildings. We referred that to the Charleston Emergency Manager,”
A tree was reported down on a building on Kanawha Blvd. East.
“We’ve got a bunch of trees down and a bunch of power lines,” said Sigman. “The power company is very busy.”
As of 11 p.m. Wednesday, Appalachian Power was reporting around 2,000 customers without power in Kanawha County, 620 in Lincoln County, 198 in Clay County, Cabell County had 363 customers without power, Wayne County had 478 and McDowell County was reporting around 100.
Flooding was also reported in Huntington as well.
Meteorologists are forecasting another chance for showers and storms on Thursday as well. Roberts said the heavy rain and flooding never ends.
“It’s every week and every day,” he said. “Mother nature is mad.”