POCAHONTAS COUNTY, W.Va. — A voluntary evacuation order issued early Monday morning for Marlinton in Pocahontas County as the Greenbrier River rose along with creeks and streams in surrounding areas was lifted by 10 a.m.
“It was bad enough, but it could have been a whole lot worse,” said Mike O’Brien, director of the Pocahontas County Office of Emergency Management.
When he spoke with MetroNews on Monday morning, the Greenbrier River was receding at Marlinton after cresting, O’Brien said, below 13 feet.
Action stage at that location is ten feet.
O’Brien said water was in a “handful” of homes and businesses along several streets in Marlinton, but high water was no longer on part of Route 219 or along Route 39 outside of Marlinton.
An emergency shelter opened at Marlinton Middle School had been closed.
“I think it was a combination of things — the rain, the warmer temperatures, the snowpack we had in the mountains — that led to this and there was a lot of uncertainty,” O’Brien said.
Downriver, it was expected to be Monday night before the Greenbrier River crested at Alderson at 16 feet, two feet above flood stage in what was defined as the moderate flooding range.
That would follow earlier rises through Renick, Caldwell and Ronceverte.
“Pocahontas County has more rainfall and more snowmelt and we’re the result of that,” said Paula Brown, deputy director of Greenbrier County Homeland Security and Emergency Management, as she monitored water levels on Monday.
There were some high water issues in western Greenbrier County on Monday morning but, at that point, no water had been reported in homes.