HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Huntington Mayor’s calls it “an unusual occurrence” — the flash flooding that quickly turned some of his city’s streets into rivers back on Friday.
In some areas, children were swimming in the water while others traveled the streets by raft.
“In less than 45 minutes, two inches of rain came down and there was just nowhere for it to be able to go,” said Mayor Steve Williams on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”
“There were areas of town that haven’t seen flooding in 50 or 60 years (that did).”
The water, he said, receded quickly but left behind debris — especially in the city’s multiple viaducts. “It was quite a mess,” Williams said. City crews worked through the weekend and, by Monday morning, the Mayor reported things were back to normal.
Monday was the first day of the 2014 Fall Semester at Marshall University in Huntington.
For residents who saw water in their homes, though, clean up efforts were continuing. “We’re having special pickups for them all week long to make sure that we get rid of all that excess trash,” the Mayor said.
On Friday, street flooding was also reported in Barboursville while high water covered parts of Route 119, Route 65 and Route 52 in portions of Mingo County where debris pickups were also scheduled for Monday.