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PHILIPPI – Gov. Patrick Morrisey declared a State of Emergency for Barbour County Monday afternoon following severe thunderstorms and heavy rainfall that caused significant flooding and damage across the county.
Heavy rain over a short period of time on Saturday damaged homes, bridges and roads in Arden, Clemtown, Kasson and Moatsville. Some residents were also left without water due to damage at one of the county’s PSDs.
“There is no official rain gauge out there, but we saw anything from 4 to 7 inches in a short time frame on Saturday,” Barbour County 911 Director/OEM Deputy Director Dylan Harper told The Inter-Mountain Monday. “Chestnut Ridge PSD suffered some damage to their lines from the flooding that caused them water delivery issues.”
Although damage took place in multiple areas of the county, the Arden community was the worst hit, Harper said.
“Most of the roads were damaged out there and a couple of the bridges,” Harper said. “Most of the bridges have been temporarily patched to be safe for travel, and the PSD is still actively working to restore water in places.”
Harper said the crews and volunteers were still working Monday on fixing some of the issues caused by the flooding.
“We’ve been working on getting some people some resources,” Harper said. “We delivered some cleanup kits and some bottled water to the Arden Community Building. The community has been donating a lot of supplies and other things for the people out there who were affected.”
Harper said Saturday’s rain came “all at once” and that officials will closely be watching another storm expected to hit West Virginia today.
“Over the course of 45 minutes or an hour, it dumped and kept dumping,” Harper said. “We are actively monitoring a storm for Tuesday as well. It seems like a lot of the rain is going to be in the southern part of the state. It looks like for the most part we are going to get some high winds. Hopefully everything will be alright, but we will keep an eye on it so another one doesn’t sneak up on us.”
The State of Emergency proclamation allows state agencies to coordinate closely with local officials, mobilize resources, and provide emergency assistance to communities impacted by the flooding.
“When West Virginians are facing an emergency, we’re going to move quickly to get the people and resources in place to help,” said Morrisey. “We’re working closely with local emergency officials to assess damage, support response efforts, and help affected communities recover as quickly as possible.”
The Barbour County Office of Emergency Management/911 Facebook page is providing updates on resources and other information related to the flooding. Alters on potential hazardous weather can also be found on the site.