Crews were still working on getting everyone out of the water at 7 p.m. Friday, a Barbour County 911 official told The Inter-Mountain. He said initially 10-13 people were stranded in the high water. Police scanner traffic indicated that all individuals had been rescued by7:30 p.m. and all people were accounted for.

Elkins resident Cory Lambert was at the park with his family enjoying the day when someone began yelling for folks to get out of the water.

“The water was perfect. I was in water about waist-deep and some guy yelled to get out now,” Lambert told The Inter-Mountain Friday evening. “(By the) time I got the kids and myself out it was almost over my head.”

Lambert provided The Inter-Mountain with photos from the incident. One taken of his children playing in shallow water shows the water running clear, but another taken about 15 minutes later shows high, muddy and swift currents of water.

The Middle Fork River unexpectedly rose Friday, the currents turning muddy and swift, stranding 10-13 people in the river, officials said.

“I’m not sure exactly what caused it but it was crazy,” he said.

A public Facebook post by Alyciann Simons said, “Was just at Audra swimming and a horrible gush of water came from nowhere …. it flooded in less than 2 mins (minutes) so bad while we were in the water. We all got out safe but there is some people being looked for.”

Police scanner traffic throughout the afternoon followed the events at the state park. It indicated several people were brought back to shore near the campground and others were stuck in different locations farther down the river.

Reports indicate crews were alerted to the situation around 3:15 p.m. on Friday. Several different boats were used in rescuing people from the water.

The road leading to the state park was blocked during the rescue efforts.

Fire departments from Philippi, Belington, Junior, Elkins, Buckhannon, Bridgeport, Grafton and Nutter Fort responded. Also at the scene were representatives from the Barbour County EMS, Belington EMS, the Barbour County Sheriff’s Department and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.