CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A busy section of Interstate 77 in Charleston had to be closed late Wednesday night when two feet of water from heavy rains covered the northbound lanes near the state capitol. That’s just one example of what downpours did across parts of central and southern West Virginia.
The National Weather Service issued a number of flash flood warnings water rose in areas that have seen flooding before. A tornado watch, which had been in effect for 18 counties, expired Wednesday night. A flash flood watch remained in effect for 18 counties until early Thursday morning.
“We’re concerned about several things,” NWS Meteorologist Ken Batty said earlier in the day Wednesday. “We’ll have clusters of showers and thunderstorms and any of those could have a tropical downpour where you pick up an inch or two of rain in 30 to 45 minutes, especially the southern two thirds of West Virginia.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Meteorologists said it wasn’t the classic training of storms that can cause problems but a very large system of repeated storms.
The rain was gone by early Thursday morning. Emergency dispatchers reported several high water situations but no major damage was caused by the storms. Appalachian Power and Mon Power companies reported a few thousand outages.
Charleston police were diverting I-77 northbound traffic onto Kanawha Boulevard and then back on a few miles later. The interstate reopened by 2 a.m.
The National Weather Service says it will be cooler and more comfortable over the next several days with highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s and 60s.