LEWISBURG, W.Va. – Residents in Greenbrier County are keeping a close eye on creeks, streams and the Greenbrier River. The National Weather Service has issued a Flood Watch for much of the state through Wednesday morning and Greenbrier is on that list.
There were some tense moments on Monday as the Greenbrier County Office of Emergency Management watched streams come close to flood stage. The water was down Tuesday morning but with more rain and possible freezing rain Tuesday night into Wednesday morning OEM Director Al Whitaker said they’ll be on alert.
“With anticipation of additional rain falling [Tuesday] evening, into the night and [Wednesday morning], We’ll be watching all the creeks and streams and making sure that at least if we start to have flooding we can notify the citizens,” Whitaker said.
It’s more than just rain that’s adding water to the Greenbrier, it’s snow runoff from the mountains.
“We also have to watch up into the Marlinton area of Pocahontas [County], because whatever happens up there on the Greenbrier River eventually comes down into Greenbrier County,” according to Whitaker.
At this point ice is flowing down at a fast pace.
“We actually had one ice jam on a bridge in the Trout area near Williamsburg. We had to call in the Department of Highways in to remove that,” said Whitaker.
The DOH brought in a backhoe and had to scoop the ice onto the bank to get things flowing again.
Whitaker said until the flood concerns are over his office will watch things closely.