Under water

PRINCETON — Ground saturated with water and swollen rivers and streams fueled by melting snow proved to be a dangerous situation on Saturday as the area was hit by a rain storm that dropped 2 to 3 inches of additional precipitation on the area.

One woman died in the Bradley area north of Beckley after being swept away by flood waters and a Kanawha County firefighter was reported missing after the boat he was in capsized during a rescue attempt. The heavy rains on Friday night and Saturday morning added to the strain people throughout southern West Virginia and southwestern Virginia have struggled with one of the region’s worst winters on record.

“It’s just been one thing after another since the winds came in December,” Jerry Lane said as he examined the latest round of damage to his home on the Old Bluefield Road. “The wind (on Dec. 18, 2009) knocked one of those big old pine trees down on our power line and the power company crew cut it down and just left it there.

“Then we got hit by the snow and ice,” he said. “I tried to save a little money on the roof I put on my house last year, and didn’t put those snow guards on it, but then the ice built up and came straight down when it melted — knocking my gutters off. After the snow melted, this rain came. It runs down my neighbor’s driveway across the road from us and comes straight at my house. We have that water coming out of the hollow on one side, and Brush Creek overflowing behind us.”

“We might just as well be living in a house boat,” Amanda Lane, Jerry’s wife said.

“If we were living in a house boat, at least we could fish off it,” Jerry Lane said.

After a full month of surviving with a foot-deep snow cap, a few days’ worth of warm temperatures melted the snow cap, saturating the ground and filling stream banks to the brim. The 2-3 inches of rain that hit the region (1.87 inches in Bluefield) pushed the Bluestone River more than 7 feet above flood stage at 4 a.m., on Saturday, setting a new record of 17.18 feet, topping the previous high water mark of 15.82 feet set in April 1977.

Tim Farley, director of Mercer County Emergency Services said he traveled through Mercer County Saturday afternoon, “but there were some places we couldn’t get to,” he said. “We observed a lot of damage in the Oakvale area and at some of the residences along Route 112.” Farley said the group observed highway problems in the Matoaka area and added: “We can’t get to Spanishburg. The water is too high on U.S. Route 19 just past the intersection with Route 10. You can’t get in and people can’t get out. I live down there, but I haven’t been able to get home.

“When the snow pack we had melted, the ground was saturated and when we got this rain, there wasn’t any place for the water to go,” Farley said. “We have had some issues with flooding,” Farley said. He paused for a few moments and continued: “It has been a really unusual winter.”

Craig Hammond, executive director of the Bluefield Union Mission said that Farley and Phyllis Sheets, program manager of Bluefield office, Central West Virginia Chapter of the American Red Cross contacted him at 2:30 a.m., Saturday morning with 12 people who needed shelter.

“Since it was in the Princeton area, I contacted the Budget Inn that we work with over there and told them to expect 12 people, but they must have found other places to stay because they didn’t go to the motel,” Hammond said. “That’s a good thing.”

The Red Cross and the Mercer County Health Department opened an emergency shelter at the Health Department in Green Valley, according to Sheets. “We haven’t had any reports from McDowell County, but we have heard that some roads were closed in eastern Tazewell County, Va.,” Sheets said. “There are still parts of Mercer County that are still blocked.”

Sheets said that the Red Cross and Health Department closed the emergency shelter at 4 p.m., on Saturday, “but we can re-open in within 20 minutes if there is a need,” she said.

Jimmy Gianato, director of the West Virginia Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said that Gov. Joe Manchin declared a state of emergency in the northern part of the state and eastern panhandle on Friday but expanded that to include the southern West Virginia counties during the night.

“We drove into southern West Virginia (Saturday), but only got as far south as Beckley,” Gianato said. “A woman was swept away in the flood and died near Bradley and a firefighter who was part of a water rescue team is missing after the boat he was in capsized. There is also a lot of property damage in that area,” Gianato said.

Ronnie Bevins of Duhring said there is extensive flooding in the Montcalm area. “The bottom on the other side of the Rock Post Office is just like a big lake,” he said. “Cars can’t get through there. I’ve never seen it this bad.”

A Ceres Hollow resident who called the newspaper said that a dam at the head of the hollow located between Ceres Elementary School and Monte Vista Cemetery contributes to persistent flooding in that area every time it rains. He said the dam was built in the late 1960s, but the road has not been raised the road to alleviate the problem of four-foot of water standing on the road. “The Department of Highways is aware of the problem,” the caller said.

Mary Cochran had four and one-half feet of water standing in her basement on the Old Bluefield Road when she got home Friday night, and although she and her neighbors worked through the night to dig ditches around her home and divert the flow of water, the water level kept going up and up.

“I don’t know if I can stand this again,” Cochran said. “I can’t do this again.”

Cochran and her neighbors, Jerry and Amanda Lane, bought their homes at about the same time, and neither family was aware of the persistent water problems they would face in the years ahead. “It was not disclosed,” Cochran said.

The Lane and Cochran homes are located near the Harbor Light Baptist Church. Several manufactured homes on the side of the church nearer to Princeton were surrounded by water on Saturday afternoon.

While many communities were spared serious problems, other parts of the area got hit hard. “We have major problems,” a Giles County emergency dispatcher said. “We’ve had flooding, rock slides and mud slides — mostly in the western part of the county.”

The Blacksburg, Va., office of the National Weather Service still had a flood warning posted Saturday evening. While rain remained in the forecast through Monday, the projected rainfall amounts were not as high as the rainfall totals from Friday night and Saturday morning.

— Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com

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