CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Department of Transportation says the clean-up process along state roadways across the 13 counties most impacted by the devastating floods over the weekend is going to be extensive.
Most of the flooding, after up to 4.5 inches of rain fell Saturday night and into Sunday morning, occurred in the Southern Coalfields with the hardest-hit areas being Mercer, Mingo, McDowell and Wyoming counties.
Department of Transportation Public Relations Executive Director Brent Walker told MetroNews that many roads have been closed since the flooding initially started to occur.
He said areas that have more gravel roads create greater challenges such as washouts and clogged culverts and drains, causing water to rise quicker.
Walker said this, in turn, creates even more problems.
“You know, when there’s no place in the hills for that water to go, they run down, so not only did we have a tremendous amount of flooding, we also had some mudslides, some rock slides and just some slides in general,” Walker said.
He said the DOT was out Monday assessing the damage and cleaning up debris from the slips and slides along the roadways the best they could.
Walker said, fortunately, they have been receiving assistance from the state in the clean-up endeavor.
“Governor Morrisey has made sure that we have the resources to be able to spread around and make that the areas that are hit the heaviest can get what they need to get roads opened,” he said.
However, Walker said that now one of the main concerns that’s expected to come right on top of this flooding disaster and an already heavily-saturated ground, is another winter event expected for mid-week.
“No rest for the weary in terms of dealing with some high water and some flooding issues, some slide issues, then we’re going to be back at snow removal and ice control,” he said.
Walker said while they don’t have any approximations yet as to how many roads have been affected, they know some roadways were affected more than others, but he doesn’t want to minimize the damage that some of the lesser-impacted counties are dealing with.
He said regardless, it’s going to take some time to clean it all up, but they plan to remain vigilant and use the resources they have available to them.
“We’re going to move some other resources into those areas that are hardest hit, but let’s not forget, again we have another winter event that is moving in, and so, we’re just asking the traveling public to be patient,” Walker said.
He said they expect to be dealing with continued high water for the next few days.
Walker said while they know that this is a four-season state and winter alone can bring on a multitude of varied weather patterns, this winter has already posed a particular challenge with the three weeks of frigid temperatures and significant snow accumulations, and then a sudden transition to warmer temperatures and excessive rainfall that would have been snow.