The Inter-Mountain photo by Brad Johnson Water rises to near the bottom of a metal bridge that leads to Back Road near Valley Bend.

Submitted photo by Chad See
Torrential rains and snow melt caused flooding in several areas of Randolph County. Above, water overflows its banks about three miles north of Valley Head.

ELKINS — Area residents woke up to road closures and school closings on Wednesday morning, as weather conditions led to icy roads and flooding throughout the area.

In Randolph County, many motorists were unable to travel to destinations early in the morning. Several roads in the southern part of the county, particularly in the Valley Head, Mill Creek and Dailey area, were closed due to flooding.

Robert Phillips, the Randolph County Office of Emergency Management 911 Center Chief of Operations, told The Inter-Mountain on Wednesday that high water was in issue in several areas.

“The flooding was caused by the rain and snowmelt on Tuesday and overnight,” said Phillips. “Most of the road closings in the county were up in the Mill Creek and Valley Head area. We had the Huttonsville Straight closed, Route 219 at the Tygarts Valley Bridge toward Valley Head closed, the backroads to Mill Creek, Valley Bend and East Dailey closed, and Georgetown Road closed.”

Phillips said as of 3 p.m. on Wednesday, all of the aforementioned roads, except for the Georgetown Road, were reopened.

“The only thing we still have closed is the Georgetown Road,” he said. “It’s still impassable.”

Area schools closed on Wednesday included those in Randolph, Tucker, Barbour, Upshur and Pocahontas counties. Students at Tygarts Valley High School and George Ward Elementary in Mill Creek were dismissed early on Tuesday as high winds knocked out power to more than 600 residents in the Valley Head area.

Close to 300 residents in Beverly also lost electricity on Tuesday, but Phillips said power to all residents in the county was restored as of Wednesday evening.

“We finally got everyone’s power restored sometime around 2 p.m.,” he said. “They were able to get some of the outages fixed overnight and they got the rest of them up and running today.”

Tygarts Valley High School Principal Steve Wamsley said the school’s power came back on late Tuesday evening, but he added that the flooding in the Mill Creek area was the worst he’s seen in a long time.

“The water was really bad up here this morning,” Wamsley said. “This is the highest I’ve seen the water in the Valley since 2015. I saw a car stuck this morning in between the Back Road and Valley Bend that tried to drive through the water. There was a wrecker pulling into the water to get it out when I went by.

“We also had a basketball game here on Tuesday night and we had a parent come to the game and grab his daughter, who was a cheerleader, and take her home because they were closing the road from Huttonsville to Valley Head.”

Wamsley added that the water was receding in Valley Head and in Mill Creek Wednesday evening.

The National Weather Service in Charleston is calling for partly sunny skies today in the area, with a high near 43 degrees. A wind advisory is still in effect in the area, however, with wind 7 to 16 miles per hour with gusts as high as 32 mph.

“There’s still going to be some standing water on the roads in some areas on Thursday, so people need to be cautious when they are out driving,” Phillips said. “And there’s still the potential for trees falling because of the saturation of the ground and the winds.”