From left, Jan and Chip Pickering pose in the Emergency Response Vehicle before they leave for training in Charleston from the American Red Cross in Parkersburg. West Virginia is getting rain from Tropical Storm Florence. (Photo Provided)

PARKERSBURG — The American Red Cross Northwest West Virginia Region on Monday dispatched its Emergency Response Vehicle with Chip and Jan Pickering, husband and wife, for training in Charleston, W.Va., Sharon Kesselring, executive director, said.

The Red Cross in West Virginia is determining what response may be required here before releasing volunteers for disaster relief in other states, she said on Monday. Because it depends on the weather, the Red Cross will evaluate conditions for another day, she said.

“We still need to be cautious,” Kesselring said.

Part of the training for the Pickerings will be about the different cultures with which they will contact, besides the direct aspects of disaster relief, Kesselring said.

The rain started falling in the Mid-Ohio Valley around midnight and early-morning on Monday from Florence, now called Tropical Storm Florence.

”Fortunately for West Virginia, I don’t think the hit was as hard as what was originally expected,” Wood County 911 Director Rick Woodyard said in a briefing to the county commission Monday. “That is a very good thing. Now we can take and start providing resources to those who were hit hard.”

River watchers are keeping an eye on the Ohio River, he said.

”We don’t know what the projections are yet with everything to the north of us as the rains come down and what that might do to the river levels.”

Small streams and creeks in the area are starting to reach bank levels or go over their banks, particularly in the southern part of Wood County.

”Those who live around the smaller tributaries need to keep an eye out for flash flooding,” Woodyard said. ”We will have to take a wait-and-see approach with what happens with rains to the north.”

He has been in contact with state officials 4-5 times a day. The National Guard is working with the Homeland Security Emergency Management under a unified command.

Officials have equipment staged in areas they think will be hit the worst so crews can move in quickly to help, Woodyard said. The National Guard’s C-130 transport planes might be utilized at a later time with areas that were hit hard to transport supplies, he said.

Woodyard said he has been in regular contact with emergency providers around the county and state as well as federal officials and the American Red Cross. Everyone is ready to mobilize if needed.

Among weather-related events, the Parkersburg Fire Department postponed the groundbreaking of the new Fire Station No. 2 at 16th and Covert streets. The area is too muddy, Fire Chief Jason Matthews said.

The ceremony was moved to 2 p.m. Wednesday, he said.