CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Residents in some of the hilly sections of Charleston were concerned, probably scared, when they started seeing high water Sunday during during a torrential downpour.
Those living on Garrison Avenue, Sugar Creek, along Greenbrier Street, not far from West Virginia International Yeager Airport, saw small creeks turn into runoff and their streets turn into creek beds.
Charleston Fire Department Captain David Hodges said the calls started to roll-in at about 8:30 p.m. Sunday.
“We did have to remove a few people from homes that were seeing water damage, from a vehicles, but mainly it was instructed them to go to higher ground because we could not access them,” Hodges told MetroNews Monday.
The Charleston Fire Department swift water rescue team began Sunday in eastern Kanawha County.
“We were helping out in the Cabin Creek area, Chelyan area and then it turned into the need here at home,” Hodges said. “The Garrison Avenue area, the Sugar Creek area were heavily affected.”
Power outages remain an issue. Appalachian Power reported just more than 12,000 customers without service Monday afternoon, more than 8,000 of those were in Kanawha County.
Kanawha County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said his office was going door-to-door in some areas Monday to check out flood damage.He said it wasn’t just one community that got hit this time.
“This is not the worst flooding that we’ve seen in these areas…there’s been more serious flooding but it’s been so widespread. Yesterday (Sunday), it was from the western part of the county to the eastern part of the county,” Sigman said.
Cabin Creek, Campbells Creek Drive and parts of Charleston were hard hit. Sigman said damage assessments will determine if there’s enough damage for a federal disaster declaration.
“That’s a moving target as far as what the level is going to be, there are a lot of factors they put into that calculation. The folks are out right now trying to figure out how many houses were just affected with water in the basement or water in the crawl space,” Sigman said.