West Virginia Faces Storm Cleanup

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

July 9, 2001 / 9:11 AM EDT / CBS

In West Virginia, they still don't know how bad it is, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod. What the governor calls the worst flooding he's ever seen has kept some rural communities in the southern and central parts of the state cut off from communication.

Gov. Bob Wise, whose helicopter was used to pluck people off roofs and ferry a heart patient to a hospital, declared a state of emergency in eight counties, the first step in seeking a federal disaster declaration.

"This is as bad a flooding as I've ever seen in West Virginia," he told CBS Radio News. "We've got whole communities where the roads are cut off or mudslides have taken them out or they're just completely covered."

"Let no one underestimate the severity of this flood," Wise said. "This is probably going to be the most costly flood in West Virginia's history."

Officials said up to 3,000 homes were damaged by water or mudslides, and some were destroyed. Police wouldn't let anyone drive cars down the hill into Mullens on Monday because so much mud filled the town after record flash flooding. Down the Guyandotte River, mud blocked roads into the town of Pineville.

"I've been in some of these homes. There's mud two feet thick," said state Del. Lacy Wright. "There's instances where they don't even know where their homes are."

Storms also killed at least three others in Kentucky, and left hundreds homeless in Ohio, Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina. Still, West Virginia seemed to get it the worst due to an unusually wet spring that already waterlogged the state.

Flooding after heavy rain is routine in the region, where most homes, roads and railroad tracks are squeezed together along creeks and rivers at the bottom of narrow valleys between steep mountains.

Some residents have blamed the coal and timber industries for the severity of recent floods and mudslides, a contention both industries deny. An official in the coal industry said the flooding didn't correspond to mining sites.

Ed Murriner, an assistant state forester, said part of the problem may be that forest fires in the area have burned away the leaves and other vegetation on the forest floor that normally absorbs water.

"What I have seen where I have been is simply a matter of much too much water in too small an area in too short a period of time," said Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association.

Nearly 8 inches of rain fell Sunday at Mullens, 55 miles south of Charleston, the National Weather Service said.

Only a few light showers were reported in the state Monday.

The Guyandotte and Tug Fork rivers jumped to record levels within hours, the Guyandotte peaking Sunday at 18 feet in Pineville, passing the 1997 record of 17.7 feet. A flood gauge in Welch quit working when the Tug Fork hit 17.8 feet, more than 4 feet above flood stage, the weather service said. Wright said the water rose 5 or 6 feet over Welch's 15-foot flood wall.

The U.S. Geoogic Survey said flooding on parts of the Guyandotte River exceeded the 100-year flood level, the estimated maximum expected in a 100-year period.

"It's never happened here like this," said Bill Wade, 82. "I saw a school bus completely covered in water. I saw a casket floating down the street. I saw motor homes and mobile homes floating in front of me."

Floodwaters pushed this postal truck three blocks in Mullens.

The same region was hit by repeated storms from May 15 through June 11, causing millions of dollars in damage. Sixteen counties were eligible for some type of federal disaster assistance from that flood, including most of those flooded again Sunday.

"I might leave now," said Doug Acord, 47, in Corinne, where the Guyandotte River normally is around 6 inches deep but ran about 20 feet deep on Sunday. "We just cleaned up a couple of months ago and now this is worse. I'm getting tired of this."

The region's employment and population have plunged in the past 10 years, partly because new machinery has meant fewer people are needed to work in the coal mines that dominate the economy.

Wyoming County has lost 11 percent of its population since 1990 and now has 25,708 residents, according to the last census. McDowell County has lost 22 percent. McDowell's unemployment rate was 7.9 percent in May and Wyoming's was 6.4 percent, compared to a state rate of 5.1 percent. Many of those who remain in the area are elderly.

In the McDowell County town of Kimble, stores were covered with mud, windows were broken and wooden fronts were caved in.

"We're just completely in shock. This whole town is gone," said Donna Gianato, 36, who operated Gianato Hardware with her husband.

Alec Amerson, 82, referred to his town's businesses in the past tense as he surveyed the damage Monday: "That one was a church. That one was a beauty shop. The one beside it was a funeral home."

Asked if his town of about 550 residents would rebuild, Kimble Mayor Jack Premo said: "I would put a big question mark beside that."