PHILIPPI, W.Va. — Following a week of rain and storms, Barbour County is beginning to return to normal.
Barbour County Office of Emergency Management Director Corey Brandon said the Tygart Valley River was at 13.5 feet in Belington Friday morning and 16.1 feet in Philippi and receding.
The list of roads impassable due to high water levels includes River Road in Belington, Buckhannon River Road, and Dantown Road on Route 38. The Barbour County Highway is one lane just north of Junior and is being contravened with a temporary traffic signal.
The swelling Tygart Valley River backed up into the town of Philippi, causing a loss of power to at least half of the town at 12:15 a.m. Thursday.
The outage affected the Barbour County Courthouse, Broaddus Hospital, the Industrial Park, and large sections of residential areas.
“Due to saturated grounds near a flooded area caused by the river exceeding its limits and backing up into an area that’s prone to flooding,” Brandon said.
Brandon said a warming and charging shelter was temporarily established at Philippi City Hall, which was closed after power was restored Thursday afternoon.
“Power has been restored, and we are taking it case by case. If we do hear of any outages in the area, we are alerting officials and crews to those outages so we can look into them,” Brandon said.
Brandon praised the efforts of the utility companies, the Department of Highways, first responders, and officials in the area.