KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. — Residents of the Upper Kanawha Valley are trying to dry out this morning after a terrifying night.
Those living in hollows stemming from U.S. Route 60 were awakened in the middle the night to water rising in the nearby creeks and creeping toward their property. Some had to be removed from their homes in a boat.
“We started out with several on Lotus Drive in the Sissonville Area about three o’clock. They evacuated several on Campbell’s Creek and on Kelly’s Creek and at Cannelton,” said Kanawha County Emergency Manager C.W. Sigman on the West Virginia Morning News.
The intense rainfall poured 4 to 5 inches of rain on the region from midnight until around 5 a.m. The streams couldn’t handle the runoff and in many cases it was in the road way and in some cases rose into homes.
“It was up to our back porch and were a good bit from the creek. It was knee deep in our back yard. I was asleep and my dad called me about 4:00 and told me to get up and look. When we looked, I got the kids dressed and took them up the road where they are safe,” said Bria Washington, a resident of Kelly’s Creek.
“Our rain gauge locally says we’ve had about three inches. Kelly’s Creek came up about 4:00 and went across the road,” said Gordie Chapman, Chief of the Cedar Grove Volunteer Fire Department.
Further up Route 60 at Hughes’ Creek as the water started to recede the damage became evident. Debris from up the hollow washed into the bridge over the creek near the mouth of the hollow and created a dam. The pressure from the high water knocked the bridge off its moorings and left several residents stranded.
Water got into the living quarters of several of the houses
“The damage seems to get worse the further you go from Charleston,” reported MetroNews’ Jeff Jenkins live from the scene.
Jenkins reported Campbell’s Creek, Kelly’s Creek, and Hughes’ Creek all had high water issues from a classic flash flood which went down as fast as it rose. There are reports of even more damage in the area of Cannelton and Smithers.
“At the mouth of Hughes’ Creek there’s a little low lying community called Happy Town. Several homes were flooded there. Further up Hughes’ Creek the water came across the road and into homes. Residents here tell me they haven’t seen flooding this bad since the 1970’s,” Jenkins reported.
Cleanup work and debris removal is ongoing in a number of those communities in the U.S. Route 60 Corridor from Charleston all the way into Fayette County.