CANNELTON HOLLOW, W.Va. — Residents along Smithers Creek on Cannelton Hollow in Fayette County are facing several days of clean-up after Monday’s flash flooding.
A 4.5 mile stretch from Smithers to Marty Mountain just south of Mount Olive State Prison was hit hard by a relatively narrow but slow-moving storm system that sent the creek out of its banks at around 5 a.m. Monday.
The raging water pushed, pulled and upended vehicles, tore apart a key sewer line and left behind tons of mud and debris in homes and yards.
The storm system was very isolated with the heaviest rain reported on the north side of the Kanawha River causing flash flooding from just east of Charleston in Kanawha County to Gauley Bridge in Fayette County. Gov. Jim Justice has placed both counties under a state of emergency.
MORE See gallery of photos from Monday’s flash flood
Fayette County Commissioner Allison Taylor told MetroNews she’s most thankful that it appears no residents were seriously injured. She is concerned about how soon their houses will be livable. She’s also concerned about infrastructure issues including the damaged sewer system that has cut off sewer service to most residents on Cannelton Hollow.
“The pipes are either destroyed, washed out or need to be bore out. There are miles worth of repairs that have to be done to those sewer pipes,” Taylor said.
There was at least one bridge destroyed and a few others damaged.
The area does have water service.
Taylor is also concerned about sections of Gauley Bridge including Scrabble Creek where two bridges were compromised Monday. State Route 39 heading out of Gauley Bridge was expected to be blocked until at least Monday night.
MORE Kanawha County newlyweds face flash flooding
Cannelton Hollow resident Jennifer Willis leaned over a bridge and watched a piece of heavy equipment remove debris Monday afternoon. A few hours earlier she had received a phone call from a friend who told her to get up and get out because the creek was flooding.
“She said it was flooding at her mom’s house, which is her’s—and (she said) we probably need to check our stuff and when I went outside–we have two cars and we barely got them out on time. We were asleep and it just came,” Willis said.
She was fortunate. There are a number of residents who lost their vehicles in the flood. Some of them were pushed against trees and under decks. The water even turned over a camper trailer.
Willis said it only took about 20 minutes for the water to rise and create a scary situation.
“We had a flood back in 2000 but it was nothing like this. This is 10-times worse. It just happened–quick,” Willis told MetroNews.
Hutch’s Wrecker Service owner James “Bear” Black escorted MetroNews up Cannelton Hollow in his side-by-side. He noted damage to homes and vehicles.
“Lot of houses and vehicles. Some of (the vehicles) are in creeks and some of them in yards,” Black said.
.@JeffJenkinsMN took a drive with “Bear” Black along Cannelton Hollow Road. Listen to their conversation about what they saw below… pic.twitter.com/Skz552GjGN
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) August 15, 2022
The Fayette County town of Smithers is at the end of Smithers Creeks. The high water from Cannelton got 12 feet high in a bowl like area behind the McDonald’s on U.S. Route 60. Mayor Ann Cavalier said everything in the town’s maintenance garage was likely destroyed.
“It looks like we’ve lost some trucks. The whole back-end of the garbage packer was in water, probably every weed eater we own is gone,” Cavalier said.
Cavalier said in a summer of storms there was something different about the one that occurred Monday morning.
“It rained all night but there was a period of time there, about 40 minutes to an hour, where it was just coming down so hard and if you’re familiar with Cannelton Hollow, it’s just a very narrow hollow and there was just no place for that water to go but down to the creek bed and flow out to the river and everything in between got in its way,” Cavalier said.
Commissioner Taylor watched the efforts on Cannelton Hollow turn from search and rescue earlier Monday to mitigation by Monday evening. She said there’s one top priority.
“Figure out how we can take care of our people and get, for those who can return home, their services restored and for those who can’t (return home), some place to live,” Taylor said.
There are few family shelters set up in Fayette County including one at Valley Middle School and another in a building near the mouth of Cannelton Hollow.