Deadly West Virginia flooding won't be the last of this week

At least 6 people were killed by flooding in West Virginia over the weekend, and the forecast is for more rain.

Severe flooding in West Virginia over the weekend killed at least 6 people, and the search for missing people continued on Monday. The flooding was caused by a stalled cold front with repeated low pressure systems moving across the mid-Atlantic, and AccuWeather meteorologists say new flooding may occur in the same areas this week.

More flooding on the way

"Unfortunately, the front is not budging," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Chad Merrill explained. "It will be the focal point for additional flooding problems until the pattern finally breaks on Thursday."

Due to recent heavy rain that has already saturated the ground, just 1 inch of rain falling in a one-hour time span can generate flooding across much of the state. These individual storms will easily produce rates of 1.5 inches per hour, Merrill said.

The most vulnerable part of West Virginia to flooding in the middle of the week is along the I-79 corridor, which includes Morgantown, Fairmont and Charleston.

Deadly flooding sweeps through Wheeling and Triadelphia

"The steep terrain across West Virginia also contributes to the effectiveness of water to run off into smaller valleys," Merrill said. "A prime example of that happened Saturday night in Wheeling, West Virginia, when Wheeling Creek rose almost 7 feet in two hours, reaching minor flood stage."

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said that 6 deaths happened in Ohio County, West Virginia, home to Wheeling and Triadelphia, which was also hit hard. Two other people are missing. The county has major infrastructure damage, said Lou Vargo, the Director of the Wheeling-Ohio County Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

'A force you can't even imagine'

Mark Peluchette, president of Liberty Distributors, joined the AccuWeather Early show on Monday to describe how, in a matter of minutes, they “went from just a little trickle of water” to a “river of water that was 4 feet deep and 50 yards wide” during the recent flash flooding in Triadelphia, West Virginia.

His entire business, including offices, products and equipment, were swept away. The heavy flooding moved a tractor trailer a mile down the road along with a 30-ton backhoe.

"It's a force that you can't even imagine," Peluchette added. "I've never seen destruction like this before, the speed at which it happened."

An apartment building collapsed under heavy rain

In Fairmont, West Virginia, an apartment building partially collapsed after heavy rain caused a buildup of dirty floodwaters on one side of the building. Floodwaters forced through the first floor, knocking out walls on the opposite side. The walls on higher floors then gave way, and heavy rain from the roof came crashing down in a waterfall.

"When the engine company arrived on the scene, they heard people screaming for help in the buildings behind me, saying people were trapped," Capt. Dustin Lambert of the Fairmont Fire Department said.

Fortunately, residents were evacuated from the lower floors before the walls collapsed. No casualties were reported.

Three-day rainfall totals crossed 5 inches at one rain gauge near Fairmont.

A long month of flooding in the state

"So far this month, 49 Flash Flood Warnings have been issued in West Virginia," Merrill said. "This ranks as the third-most number of Flash Flood Warnings issued in June since 1985, and we are only halfway through the month."

Report a Typo