MOUNT HOPE, W.Va. — Back-to-back deluge storms caused high water in the Fayette County town of Mount Hope which left scattered damage in the town.
“There’s probably a dozen or so residences that experienced high water,” Mayor Mike Kessinger told MetroNews Thursday.
Both of the town’s main streams exceeded their banks. Dunloup Creek overflowed its banks and caused damage to homes and the road nearby. In the middle of town, Sugar Creek also left its banks and caused problems along Main Street.
“Sugar Creek is a small tributary to Dunloup and it crosses Main Street, so our maintenance building got hit,” Kessinger explained.
Although there was some damage, past experience helped lessen the blow on this event. According to Kessinger, NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) bought out a lot of properties after they were flooded twice in recent years. He said if those people hadn’t sold to the feds, they would be facing cleanup of their homes for a third time.
“We had two 100-year floods in a period of 10 years. A lot of those folks who were living in those areas that heavily flooded, a lot of them had been removed already,” Kessinger said.
Water covered a number of streets and got into the city’s maintenance building. Although a few homes had damage, the biggest issue was road damage. Kessinger said repairing those roads and handling the cleanup is now the top priority.
“We did see some of our secondary roads and accesses washed out or washed out on the side of the road. We’re moving the needle every day and now comes the cleanup. It’s the worst part of these things,” he said.