ANSTED, W.Va. — The sights and sounds of a violent flash flood won’t soon leave Fayette County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Nick Mooney.
He was quickly on patrol Thursday evening in eastern Fayette County when the waters began to rise in the middle of a massive train of thunderstorms that would devastate the region. Residents were crying for help but in some cases they couldn’t be reached, Mooney told MetroNews Saturday.
“We could get within a hundred yards of them–we could hear them–we could hear them yelling for help but there was no way we could get to them,” Mooney lamented.
That occurred even with some of the best swift water rescue teams who have been dispatched to the Gauley and New rivers in the past.
“The Nuttall and Ansted fire departments with their swift water rescue teams–these are world class trained individuals in doing this, but this was overwhelming and there was nothing we could do,” Mooney said.
Mooney spent 10 years with the National Guard and was part of the response to floods in McDowell County in 2000 and 2001 but he said that doesn’t compare with what he’s seen in the Fayette County communities of Russellville, Nallen, Clifftop in the Sewell Mountain area.
“It’s devastated. I don’t even have words to describe it,” he said.
Parts of the main highways, including Route 41, were wiped out in less than an hour, Mooney said.
Mooney is helping coordinate relief efforts for residents at Ansted Baptist Church. He said they need as many supplies as people can give. The governor’s office is urging residents to donate through local organizations who can then get the supplies into the impacted areas.