WV Floods Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Justice: Building More Dams And Lakes Key To Flood Control

In his Tuesday coronavirus briefing, Gov. Jim Justice repeated his belief that the “big fix” to flood control is building “lots of dams and lakes.”

“Those lakes would help us with energy generation and tourism,” Justice said. “But more than anything, it would truly help us with flood control.“

He said the challenge is getting past all the government permitting standing in the way.

“Until we decide to embark upon big ideas that would truly control floods, and generate energy, and do things that would perpetuate tourism, we’re standing in our own way,” Justice said. “The problem is really simple when you’ve got government agencies after government agencies that are going to stand in the way.”

State Resiliency Officer Robert Martin is in charge of developing the new state flood mitigation plan. He said an ongoing study on creating water impoundments in the Kanawha River Basin is a part of the state’s flood mitigation strategy.

“Some of what will come out of those multi-year studies is what you can do along those that would help to mitigate flooding,” Martin said. “Sometimes that’s dams and lakes. There’s a lot that goes behind that. We have to work with multiple agencies and it takes a lot of coordination involving people who have properties that have to be purchased.”

Martin said the Kanawha River Basin study will not be part of the new state flood mitigation plan due out in the Spring of 2023. He said learning how to control waterways is what retention projects can do.

“Even as small as a retention pond on a small tributary will control the amount of water that flows through it,” Martin said. “So you don’t have large gushes of water during heavy rains – and it dries up at other times.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers builds the dams and lakes. Public Affairs Officer Brian Maka said they don’t use the terms “control” or “mitigation,” but “flood risk management.” He said there hasn’t been a new West Virginia dam and lake project for more than 20 years.

However, Maka said without the dam containing Summersville Lake, the deadly flood of 2016 would have covered Charleston, all the way up to the State Capitol steps.

W.Va. State Climatologist: Heavy Rain And Flooding May Last Through September

West Virginia’s climate expert said concentrated rainfall and flooding conditions may continue for a while.

Dr. Kevin Law is a Professor of Geography at Marshall University and is West Virginia’s State Climatologist.

He said Huntington, for example, has had the two wettest July on record for 2021 and 2022.

Law cited multiple weather factors for the deluges the state is experiencing.

He said first, an unusually stationary jet stream trough is creating a path for low pressure rain systems traveling into the Ohio Valley.

“It’s kind of a steering pattern for storms,” Law said. “We’ve been seeing a lot more of a trough extending into the Ohio Valley, and that’s led to a lot of these low pressure systems following that path.”

Second, he said high pressure systems in the North Atlantic, sparked by climate change, are blocking any escape or relief.

“You have these blocking highs that prevent things from moving out,” Law said. “That’s been the culprit keeping things more persistent in our area.”

Law said future weather models show these combined inclement weather patterns may be with us for several more weeks.

“It’s not really until you get more toward the end of September, where they’re kind of dialing it back a little bit,” Law said. “We should be expecting some more precipitation, at least over the next few weeks.”

Law added that high summer temperatures, due in part to continued global warming, are churning stronger pop-up storms into the mix.

He said the wet weather systems are concentrating on central and southern West Virginia.

“As you go further and further north, there’s less rain,” Law said. “Believe it or not, over in the Eastern Panhandle, we’ve been talking about drought.”

Flood Victim’s Son Still Gets Emotional Talking About His Parents

The anniversary of the rainfall that sent waters rushing into the hollers of West Virginia might be June 23, but for victim’s loved ones, the nightmare really began the next day in 2016.

Edward Thompson died of hypothermia and stress-related heart failure during the 2016 flood that ravaged West Virginia.

His son, Keith Thompson, found out his father had passed about 1:30 a.m., on June 24, 2016.

“He was right there with Mom in this water. It was right at the light switches on the wall, if you can visualize it so, you know, up to about your waist,” Thompson said. “It was an 85- and 83-year-old-man and woman, and very, very cold water and the dark.”

Gerda Thompson’s home was damaged due to floods. Volunteers worked to restore her house. Thompson moved back into his mother’s home in Rainelle about a month before her death.

“But we got her back in her home,” Keith Thompson said. “And I did sell the house, finally sold the house about three years ago. And a family has it, they’re loving it. I’ve driven by the house and you know, it’s the yard’s cut and everything’s nice and neat and they’d be proud of it.”

Thompson says while the anniversaries are hard, it’s important to remember.

“You never get over it,” he said. “You just kind of go on with life. You know, Dad passed away in the water. Mother passed away about four months later with a stroke. That’s the one thing I learned through all of this, you just have to get up. The sun will come up in the morning, we will go on, and that’s what we’ve done.”

Even though his parents are gone, Thompson says he’s thankful that he had the insurance and help from volunteers to restore his former childhood home.

Several families waited years to rebuild and there are still bridges that need to be built. Thompson says he’s surprised that students in the Richwood area still don’t have a school to attend.

“Richwood High School has not been rebuilt. It should have been one of the first things they started to work on,” Thompson said. “Here it is, six years later, these kids are still working out of portable units. That’s not right. These kids deserve their school and that has always bothered me.”

Now, the funds available for this school are at risk of being sent back to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. If the work isn’t completed by December 2024, all funds will need to be paid back to FEMA by Nicholas County.

Thompson still gets emotional at times while talking about his parents and the flood. But he’s also learning to find peace in his new life, without them.

“There’s good in everything,” Thompson said. “There are a lot of people now that have much nicer homes. It was a rough way to get it.

“Twenty-three people died in this flood. Did it cause their death? No, it was their time to go,” Thompson said. “I’ve said that many, many times. It could have been 75 degrees and not a rain cloud and at about 1:30 on the 24th day of June 2016, Ed Thompson would have left this world because it was his time to go.”

USDA Announces Watershed Projects In W.Va.

Representatives from the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced more than $14 million in funding for eight projects in West Virginia.

The projects include rehabilitating dams, flood prevention and watershed restoration projects. They are funded through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act — also known as the bipartisan infrastructure law.

This announcement builds on $6.3 million in projects announced earlier this year, bringing the total investment to $20.4 million in 26 projects.

Robert Bonnie, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation, made the announcement in White Sulphur Springs.

Part of the funding will be used to evaluate flood protection and other natural resource concerns along Howard Creek, which experienced a devastating flood in 2016 that killed eight people in town.

“We recognize that President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure law is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to rebuild our infrastructure,” Bonnie said. “These projects create good-paying jobs and improve economies in rural America. USDA offers several watershed programs that help communities rebuild after natural disasters and build resilience”

Today’s infrastructure announcement includes funding through two programs: the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations (WFPO) Program provides technical and financial assistance for new watershed infrastructure, and the Watershed Rehabilitation Program (REHAB) upgrades existing Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) dams.

Individual projects listed below:

Big Ditch Run Site, Webster County – Funding will be used for the planning phase of dam rehabilitation to address current design safety and performance deficiencies.
New Creek 1, Mineral County – Funding will be used to bring New Creek Site 1 into compliance with current dam design safety and engineering criteria and performance standards while continuing to provide flood protection.
Saltlick Creek 4, Braxton County – Funding will be used for the planning phase for rehabilitation of the structures that serve developments downstream and bring the dams to design safety criteria and performance standards.
Saltlick Creek 6, Braxton County – Funding will be used for the planning phase for rehabilitation of the structures that serve developments downstream and bring the dams to design safety criteria and performance standards.
Saltlick Creek 7, Braxton County – Funding will be used for the planning phase for rehabilitation of the structures that serve developments downstream and bring the dams to design safety criteria and performance standards.
Saltlick Creek 8, Braxton County – Funding will be used for the planning phase for rehabilitation of the structures that serve developments downstream and bring the dams to design safety criteria and performance standards.
Saltlick Creek 9, Braxton County – Funding will be used for the planning phase for rehabilitation of the structures that serve developments downstream and bring the dams to design safety criteria and performance standards.
Elk Creek Watershed Flood Control, Harrison County – Funding will be used to determine the feasibility of flood control protection through dams, channels, or other measures.
Little Whitestick Creek, Greenbrier County – Funding will be used to examine current hydrology and hydraulics of the project area and recommend additional measures that can be taken to reduce flooding in the vicinity.
Howard Creek Watershed, Greenbrier County – Funding will be used to look at the potential of additional flood protection, water supply and other watershed resource concerns.
Bluewell PSD Dam Removals, Mercer County – Funding will be used to decommission existing structures and look for alternate water supplies.
Elkhorn Creek Watershed, McDowell County – Funding will be used for construction to mitigate future flooding and the acquisition of floodplain easements.

Flood Warnings Loom Prior to Deadly Storm Anniversary

The National Weather Service forecasts heavy rain across West Virginia starting late Thursday and continuing into early Saturday from Tropical Storm Cindy until another front pushes through Friday night into Saturday.

Meteorologists say the combination of systems could produce flooding during the day and night Friday.

They say stronger thunderstorms Friday afternoon and evening also could bring damaging wind gusts.

The Kanawha County Commission says emergency officials are monitoring the forecast for rain showers expected late Thursday night in the greater Charleston area with heavy rain at times continuing into Friday and Saturday morning.

The storm comes on the anniversary of last year’s torrential rains and flooding and killed 23 people in West Virginia.

Boys Basketball Team Makes Husky History, Despite Lack of School

On the far side of the Charleston Civic Center, about a thousand blue and red clad supporters scream their support.

Many are wearing shirts emblazoned with #Riverstrong on the back. For these fans, tonight is as much about showing a community of resilience as celebrating a team making history.

That’s because last June, flooding devastated much of southern West Virginia, destroying homes, buildings and schools. One of the affected facilities was Herbert Hoover High School, which did not reopen for the 2016-2017 school year. Instead, Hoover now shares a building with Elkview Middle School. The middle school attends in the morning and the high school in the afternoon. But despite these odds, Hoover’s varsity basketball team made it to the final 8 state tournament for the first time in the school’s history.

“I think the one thing that people need to know is – ok we got flooded. We lost our high school. Our kids are going to a half a day of school cramming as many core classes as they can in a certain period of time, practicing basketball in the YMCA and they haven’t missed a beat,” said Joey Robertson, father of Hoover junior Gavin Robertson.

“The one thing I learned through all this is just how resilient students can be and just roll with the punches,” he said. “If it happened it to me, or when it did happen, I was devastated! I mean here you don’t have a high school, what’s your kid going to do? But our kids and our community, they’ve just rolled with it, haven’t let it get them down.”

Hoover was undoubtedly the underdog in Thursday’s game, but senior Chase King said the team came to fight.

“Looking back last year with all the seniors we lost and then over the summer when we lost our school, it was really hard to picture any success this year,” he said.

Both King and Coach Josh Daniels said what makes this team different is how hard the team worked both in and out of season.

“This is probably the toughest bunch of guys who’ve come through the Elk River,” King continued. “I mean so much heart comes through this program and it’s all thanks to these guys.”

On the court, King and the rest of the Huskies are battled it out against Fairmont. It was a tough slog for them. Fairmont was big, fast and strong and the Polar Bears got a couple points early in the game.

At times it seemed like the Huskies might be on the path toward clawing their way back at just five or six points behind. But as the game progressed, the Polar Bears began to build more of a lead.

And then it was over. Fairmont 59, Hoover 39.

For Hoover Principal Michael Kelley, just getting to the state tournament is a testament to the tenacity and resilience of this group of boys, though.

“I think this team – I think that’s one of the reasons – in addition to it being our first state championship team – I think it’s one of the reasons the community is so excited about it – they kind of embody what the community has gone through,” he said.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated that Herbert Hoover High School competed in the sweet 16 state tournament. The school actually competed in the final 8 state tournament.