WHARTON, W.Va. — The heavy rains on June 22nd may have struck an area of Boone County called James Branch harder than any other. The small stream within less than an hour turned into a raging torrent. The water quickly left the banks of the stream and tore through the pavement of the only road in and out of this narrow southern West Virginia hollow.
“It came in quick. You only had an hour to save whatever you had to save if it was toward the creek,” said Joseph Cook who lives several miles up the hollow from the intersection with Route 85.
He and his family, like many in the hollow, were trapped as the creek took out their only means of escape. Water was over five feet deep in the middle of James Branch Road. Large parts of the road were washed away. Deep craters were carved into the road bed. In some spots, it was hard to tell where the road used to run and the creek’s original channel.
“We rode it out in the house. We have a safe bank behind the house and we had a gameplan if it got into the house to run up there,” he said.
Fortunatly, it didn’t become that dire. Cook and his family were able to stay dry inside, but the water got under his house and killed about 16 of his chickens when the chicken coup was swamped. He lost his heat pump and his chain link fence on the upper side of his property became a dam for all forms of debris. The storm left a huge pile of river rocks in his yard.
The state Division of Highways was in the area as soon as the water receded. Hundreds of truckloads of rock were hauled in and heavy equipment reshaped the roadway to make it passable. Most of the repairs were temporary and additional permanent work will have to wait.
Still lots of cleanup work to do in Boone County, WV more than a week after the flood. pic.twitter.com/LZiIPQeYXp
— Chris Lawrence (@WVOutdoors) July 1, 2026
The high water cut into the stream bank on the opposite side of the road and took away from the hillside. The stream was widened by the event which took out a lot of gardens and a few tool sheds. Amazingly along the road the level of damage to actual living quarters was minimal. Most residetns who incurred damages had damage to their yard and outbuilding or possibly a heat pump unit. It was a first for most folks on the hollow, including Cook.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and I’ve talked to elderly people who have lived here. They said they’d never seen anything like it in thier whole life,” he explained.