Big Bend Golf Course, Coonskin Park partially underwater due to rain

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Jeff Hutchinson, the Kanawha County Parks and Recreation Director told 580-WCHS on Monday that several locations in the park system are underwater due to the heavy rain showers over the weekend.

Hutchinson said some locations, including Coonskin Park and Big Bend Golf Course, were the same place impacted by the June 2016 flooding. He said the current flooding happening is the worst since 2016.

Three fairways at the golf course sat underwater as of Monday afternoon at Big Bend along the Coal River. The river remains under a flood warning until Tuesday afternoon. The area saw around 4 inches of rain in 48 hours from Saturday to Monday.

“Water is still coming up,” Hutchinson said. “All these little streams are still going. We may end of with one or two greens underwater. It’s not the first time it has happened down there when the Coal River gets up.”

“Any time the water gets up is never good. We are hoping for tree deposits on the golf course. The last time we had dead trees float in and when the water receded we had big stuff down there.”

Hutchinson said it’s a long process to clean up the mess left behind by flooding.

“Once the water recedes, we will take our equipment down and push silt out of the fairways. That’s one of the big things is the silt. We will take the hoses down, hook it into the irrigation system, fire it up. Get all the sand and all the debris off of our greens,” he said.

Hutchinson added that the Elk River Trail is underwater, the same trail that was partially destroyed by the 2016 floods. He said the flooding goes from the pool house to the start of the hill toward Barlow Drive. He estimated water was four feet deep in the parking lots.