CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Emergency officials in Kanawha County said they received numerous calls Thursday night during the flash flooding.
A Flash Flood warning is in effect until 11:30 p.m. Thursday for parts of Kanawha and many surrounding counties. Some areas of the state including Parkersburg, Chapmanville and Logan had flash flood warnings in effect until at least 12 a.m. Multiple severe weather warnings were also issued for much of the state.
The flash flood warnings stretched for 195 miles from the southern coalfields to the northern panhandle.
Kanawha County Emergency Management Director C.W. Sigman said they were coordinating their response to the dozens of calls they were getting.
“Most of it is people driving into high water and people stranded in their homes,” Sigman said.
Sigman said there were a handful of water rescues that had to be made throughout Kanawha County with people getting stuck in their car or having water enter their home.
“We had a lot of water rescue calls, but some people were not actually rescued, they were able to self-rescue or walk out of their house to higher ground,” he said.
The National Weather Service said as much as two inches of rain had fallen in some areas as of Thursday night. Sigman said a lot of their calls came from west of Charleston. Calls cam in from the Smith Creek and Davis Creek areas.
“We were not getting many calls from the eastern part of the county,” said Sigman.
According to Sigman, the Marmet area was also hit hard with heavy rain and flooding.
The heaviest of the rain came through the state Thursday afternoon and evening before there was a break during the night. There’s more rain in the forecast for Friday. Sigman expects springs to recede overnight too.
“A lot of rain came in, but no tornados thank goodness,” Sigman said Thursday night.
The heavy rain and flooding comes a week after the record number of tornados that hit the state and much of the Kanawha County area.