Erica Scarberry crosses a plank spanning a washed-out bridge at Relation Road in Cross Lanes with the help of her father, Robert (right) and neighbor Jerry Withrow.
Monday's rains blocked roads and washed out a bridge near Cross Lanes. The brief reprieve from the deluge ended Tuesday morning, giving way to bands of showers -- some of them heavy -- that have been moving through the area.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Heavy morning rains on Monday caused scores of small streams to spill out of their banks across western West Virginia, blocking roads, washing out bridges, stranding drivers and disrupting school.
While the soaking weather was merely a nuisance for most West Virginians, it proved deadly for a Harrison County woman whose mobile home was struck by a 70-foot-tall, five-foot-diameter tree uprooted by a combination of wind and sodden earth.
State Police identified the victim as Stacy Aldridge, 34, of the Sardis community west of Clarksburg.
"They had a lot of wet weather up there," said Sgt. Michael Baylous. "The tree became uprooted and fell on the trailer."
Aldridge's 6-year-old daughter received minor injuries from the 1 p.m. incident.
In Glenville late Monday, the rain-swollen Little Kanawha River was flowing at nearly four feet above its flood stage, sending water into low-lying areas of its downtown district.
High water was entering the basements of several homes, as well as several businesses in Glenville. Closed by floodwaters on Monday were Glenville's Pizza Hut, Go-Mart and Sunoco, according to Gilmer County Emergency Services Director Ed Messenger.
High water late Monday was also blocking W.Va. 7 between Glenville and Burnsville, and had entered four homes in Sand Fork, which lies midway between the two towns.
"If the river doesn't go above the 28-foot mark, which they're predicting, we won't be too bad," said Messenger. At that point -- five feet above flood stage -- "there will be water in some more basements, but once we get that pumped out, we'll be OK again in a few days."
"Rivers in Clarksburg and a couple of other places could go a little above flood stage," said state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Jimmy Gianato, "but we're looking closest at Glenville right now.... We've had no reports out of the southern coalfields except for some minor flooding in Boone County."
Twenty-four-hour rain totals of more than 2 inches were recorded in portions of Calhoun, Kanawha, Lincoln, Monongalia, Preston, Putnam and Roane counties. The heaviest rainfall was recorded in St. Albans, where 2.8 inches fell.
Small stream flooding blocked numerous state highways and secondary roads across the western half of the state on Monday, but most roads were clear by evening. The floodwater-covered roads prompted school officials to cancel all classes in Lewis, Roane, Gilmer, Calhoun and Lincoln counties. Herbert Hoover High and Shoals Elementary schools in Kanawha County were closed, while others operated on a two-hour delay.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Heavy morning rains on Monday caused scores of small streams to spill out of their banks across western West Virginia, blocking roads, washing out bridges, stranding drivers and disrupting school.
While the soaking weather was merely a nuisance for most West Virginians, it proved deadly for a Harrison County woman whose mobile home was struck by a 70-foot-tall, five-foot-diameter tree uprooted by a combination of wind and sodden earth.
State Police identified the victim as Stacy Aldridge, 34, of the Sardis community west of Clarksburg.
"They had a lot of wet weather up there," said Sgt. Michael Baylous. "The tree became uprooted and fell on the trailer."
Aldridge's 6-year-old daughter received minor injuries from the 1 p.m. incident.
In Glenville late Monday, the rain-swollen Little Kanawha River was flowing at nearly four feet above its flood stage, sending water into low-lying areas of its downtown district.
High water was entering the basements of several homes, as well as several businesses in Glenville. Closed by floodwaters on Monday were Glenville's Pizza Hut, Go-Mart and Sunoco, according to Gilmer County Emergency Services Director Ed Messenger.
High water late Monday was also blocking W.Va. 7 between Glenville and Burnsville, and had entered four homes in Sand Fork, which lies midway between the two towns.
"If the river doesn't go above the 28-foot mark, which they're predicting, we won't be too bad," said Messenger. At that point -- five feet above flood stage -- "there will be water in some more basements, but once we get that pumped out, we'll be OK again in a few days."
"Rivers in Clarksburg and a couple of other places could go a little above flood stage," said state Homeland Security and Emergency Management Director Jimmy Gianato, "but we're looking closest at Glenville right now.... We've had no reports out of the southern coalfields except for some minor flooding in Boone County."
Twenty-four-hour rain totals of more than 2 inches were recorded in portions of Calhoun, Kanawha, Lincoln, Monongalia, Preston, Putnam and Roane counties. The heaviest rainfall was recorded in St. Albans, where 2.8 inches fell.
Small stream flooding blocked numerous state highways and secondary roads across the western half of the state on Monday, but most roads were clear by evening. The floodwater-covered roads prompted school officials to cancel all classes in Lewis, Roane, Gilmer, Calhoun and Lincoln counties. Herbert Hoover High and Shoals Elementary schools in Kanawha County were closed, while others operated on a two-hour delay.
Kanawha County Emergency Services Director Dale Petry said firefighters assisted at least 10 county residents from cars trapped in high water. One of those rescues took place on Pring Drive in Cross Lanes, where a crew of Tyler Mountain Volunteer Fire Department members used ropes to bring a stranded driver to safety.
"There were high-water incidents all over the western end of the county," Petry said. A high-volume pump was brought to a Nitro subdivision, where runoff was flooding drain lines and sewers. A mudslide blocked a portion of Edens Fork Road, and a bridge washed out a bridge at Relation Road in Cross Lanes, stranding about 15 families.
"We've been trying to get the bridge replaced for three years," said Relation Road resident Mike McCown.
Relation Road was used for years by garbage trucks destined for the now-closed Kanawha County Landfill. More recently, trucks hauling heavy equipment and rocks to the landfill site for reclamation work have used Relation Road, damaging both the bridge and the roadway, according to McCown.
Kanawha County Solid Waste Director Norm Steenstra, at the request of the county commission, has been working with state Department of Environmental Protection and Division of Transportation officials in an effort to replace the damaged bridge.
"We'd made a lot of progress before this happened," said Steenstra, who was at the scene of the bridge washout on Monday. "The DEP had agreed to pay for the bridge, and the DOT agreed to build it, after they got a permit from the Corps of Engineers."
John Walker, deputy state highway engineer, who also viewed the Relation Road Bridge washout, said he would try to have a temporary bridge built on the site by the end of the day.
While the rainstorm left nearly 10,000 West Virginians temporarily without power, all but about 1,500 had their service restored by late afternoon.
Although a chance of showers and thunderstorms is in the forecast for Tuesday, it is Wednesday and Thursday that are expected to provide the best opportunity for more measurable rain and possible flooding, according to the National Weather Service.
"There's another storm out of the south that could have an impact here in a couple of days," said Gianato.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelham...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5169.
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