CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Despite some high water issues scattered across northern West Virginia, Ida’s impact on the Mountain State appears to be far less than was anticipated.
“I believe the impact of the event is not going to be as significant as we feared,” said Greg Fuller, Deputy Director of the West Virginia Office of Emergency Services.
The state had braced for a massive amount of rain, particularly across northern West Virginia for much of Tuesday night all the way to Wednesday night. The National Weather Service upgraded flood watches to flood warnings through parts of Kanawha, Clay, Nicholas, Braxton, Calhoun, Gilmer, Lewis, Barbour, Upshur, Randolph, Harrison, and Preston Counties during the day Wednesday, but most of the flooding was considered minor.
Rainfall amounts over the past 24 hours exceeded 3″ with some local 4″ amounts in a stripe from Logan County, WV northeastward to Preston County, WV. A band of 2 to 3″ rainfall also fell over SE Ohio. Otherwise, amounts were in the 1-2″ range.#wvwx #ohwx #kywx #vawx pic.twitter.com/J8qGBtxrvj
— NWS Charleston, WV (@NWSCharlestonWV) September 1, 2021
Water covered parts of Route 20 in Upshur County. There were reports of washed out culverts and some roads covered in Preston County. A few buildings were surrounded by water in some low lying areas of the state, but ultimately the wrath of Ida spared much of the Mountain State.
“The heaviest of the rainfall was just west of the mountains with anywhere from one to three inches, the western lowlands got lucky with a quarter to three quarters of an inch of rainfall since yesterday morning,” said Meteorologist Tom Mazza at the National Weather Service in Charleston.
There were reports of high water along Route 72 and in the community of Tunnelton in Preston County. Barbour County also reported issues with high water over secondary roads. Clay County had at least three mudslides which covered part of Route 16 at Hartland and Elk River Road on Wednesday. Division of Highways crews were quickly on the scene to clear the roads.
There were no reports of widespread property damage or anyone injured or killed. There were also no reports as of noon Wednesday of any swift water rescues or victims trapped by rising water.