Kanawha County emergency responders and state highway officials don't know exactly how long W.Va. 61 will be closed in East Bank because of a mudslide.

But East Bank Mayor Chuck Blair said Monday that he expects the major thoroughfare to be shut down at least two days.

"They're still trying to determine how much damage there is," Blair said.

Kanawha County Emergency Services Director Dale Petry said an old, abandoned mine that had been dormant for years started overflowing early Monday, sending hundreds of thousands of gallons of water cascading across W.Va. 61 and onto First Avenue in East Bank and forcing tons of rock and earth onto the road near the western end of town.

"There's a deep mine up there that has been accumulating water for years and years and years," Petry said.

Kathy Cosco, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the mine last operated in the 1940s or 1950s.

Classes at East Bank Middle School were also canceled as a result of the slide.

Melanie Vickers, assistant superintendent in charge of middle schools, said East Bank Middle School will be open today.

Principal Candy Strader drove to the school Monday and saw no damage inside the building, according to Vickers.

"She did get inside and said things were fine," she said.

The problem was all the water that had spilled into the school's parking lot, Vickers said.

After speaking with county transportation director George Beckett, Vickers said she believed bus drivers would be able to get students to the school safely.

Kanawha County emergency responders and state highway officials don't know exactly how long W.Va. 61 will be closed in East Bank because of a mudslide.

But East Bank Mayor Chuck Blair said Monday that he expects the major thoroughfare to be shut down at least two days.

"They're still trying to determine how much damage there is," Blair said.

Kanawha County Emergency Services Director Dale Petry said an old, abandoned mine that had been dormant for years started overflowing early Monday, sending hundreds of thousands of gallons of water cascading across W.Va. 61 and onto First Avenue in East Bank and forcing tons of rock and earth onto the road near the western end of town.

"There's a deep mine up there that has been accumulating water for years and years and years," Petry said.

Kathy Cosco, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection, said the mine last operated in the 1940s or 1950s.

Classes at East Bank Middle School were also canceled as a result of the slide.

Melanie Vickers, assistant superintendent in charge of middle schools, said East Bank Middle School will be open today.

Principal Candy Strader drove to the school Monday and saw no damage inside the building, according to Vickers.

"She did get inside and said things were fine," she said.

The problem was all the water that had spilled into the school's parking lot, Vickers said.

After speaking with county transportation director George Beckett, Vickers said she believed bus drivers would be able to get students to the school safely.

Petry said the slide forced the evacuation of one family whose driveway was obliterated by the mass of mud and water.

Stacy Auber, who lives downhill from the old mine, said relatives called her about 6:20 a.m. and told her about the mudslide. Soon, a dump truck belonging to the family went sliding over the hill.

Auber grabbed some clothes and left her house by about 10:30 a.m. She was allowed to return home Monday afternoon.

But Johnny Walker, a highways administrator with the state Division of Highways, said highways officials can't even begin to guess how long it will take to clear away the debris and reopen W.Va. 61. He said it all depends on how badly the tons of mud and water damaged the two-lane highway.

"We've got a piling wall along that entire section, and it's undercut all of that," Walker said.

Highways officials need to determine whether the ground beneath the road was undermined, and they won't know that until water stops pouring across the asphalt.

Petry said discharge from the mine portal had slowed down by mid-afternoon, but that water continued to gush out of the abandoned mine at a rate of about 2,000 gallons per minute.

"It could drain for several days," Petry said.

Emergency officials reopened narrow First Avenue Monday afternoon to allow residents access to their homes, but the single-lane street will be open only to passenger vehicles. Mud and water also closed the inner set of railroad tracks, Petry said.

All but local traffic was being rerouted at Cabin Creek Road and Paint Creek Road.

"We're kind of on pins and needles now to see what happens next with it," Blair said Monday afternoon. "We don't know how much water is up there to come out."