Worst flood in 25 years

Flooding hits Glenville hardest

By ROGER ADKINS and JOLENE CRAIG, radkins@newsandsentinel.com jcraig@newsandsentinel.com
GLENVILLE — It’s being called the worst flooding Gilmer County has seen in nearly 25 years.

Residents Thursday were left with no place to buy groceries or gasoline as high water cut off access to Glenville’s stores. The flooding left the major highways in and out of town impassable.

Fresh workers at Sunbridge of Glenville nursing home and the Federal Correctional Institution arrived by boat Thursday morning after the Little Kanawha River crested nine feet above flood stage, said Ed Messenger, director of Gilmer County Emergency Services.

The National Weather Service in Charleston reported Thursday the river level was falling at Glenville and had crested in Grantsville in Calhoun County. The Little Kanawha River in Glenville crested at 32.16 feet shortly after 8 a.m., less than in 1985, when it set a record at 36.46 feet.

All schools in Gilmer County remain closed today because of the flooding. Staff members should report at normal times, and students who need to turn in books, lunch money or clean out lockers may still do so today, Monday or Tuesday, officials said.

About 15 families Thursday were expected to spend a second night in a shelter set up at the Sand Fork Baptist Church, about seven miles east of town, Messenger said.

“It’s the biggest flood we’ve had since 1985,” he said.

About 15 homes and 15 businesses, including the county’s only two grocery stores and its only four gas stations, were flooded.

Much of the downtown area was under water, according to the National Weather Service.

The weather service said four waves of storms dumped as much as four inches of rain on Glenville over 48 hours.

Sharon Radabaugh, trustee at the church-turned-shelter, said she hasn’t had much rest since she and her husband arrived at the church at 2 a.m. Thursday to help their flooded-out neighbors.

With assistance from other volunteers, they provided families and “lots of little kids” with games and activities to keep them occupied, showers to bathe in, food to eat and cots to sleep on, she said. The Red Cross was on its way Thursday afternoon with more food and cleaning supplies that families can take home with them, according to The Associated Press.

Other than being tired, Radabaugh said she and the community were coping well.

“Everybody’s safe and that’s the important thing,” she said.

Messenger said the river was scheduled to return to its banks by 6 p.m., when cleanup efforts were to begin in earnest. About 2.4 inches of rain fell in Grantsville.

In addition to Gilmer County, high water closed schools in Wirt, Ritchie and Calhoun counties.

The high water problems are related to the wet conditions the region has seen in the past month, said Dave Marsalek, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston.

“This (flooding) was set up by a pretty wet May that kept everything on the saturated side,” Marsalek said.

Janice Lantz, Allegheny Power spokesman, said electricity was restored for many customers by Thursday night. There was one remaining power outage in Wood County. Service was restored to a total of about 2,000 customers.

In Glenville, service had been restored to about 900 customers, with about 30 still without power. For those, service was expected to be restored by Thursday night.

About 9,500 customers were affected by outages during the latest series of storms in Ritchie County, Lantz said. As of Thursday night, about 36 customers remained without power. Those were expected to be restored later Thursday.

In Calhoun and Roane County, service had been restored to about 1,400 customers. About 900 were still without power, Lantz said.

In Wirt County, planners for the Relay for Life, a nationwide fundraiser of the American Cancer Society, have postponed the annual event because of high water at Sportsmen Park in Elizabeth. The event was to start this evening.

The relay will be held June 20 at the Wirt County Courthouse in downtown Elizabeth, said spokesman Carmen Hathaway.

The Little Kanawha River was expected to crest below flood stage at 33.5 inches. Flood stage in Elizabeth is 36 feet. A flood warning for Elizabeth was canceled Thursday.

Duck Creek was one of the streams flooding in Washington County, according to Sheriff Larry Mincks, who reported 18 flooded area roadways remained underwater late Thursday afternoon. Among the roads in the report were portions of Ohio 821, Washington County 333, Washington County 9 and Ohio 145 just north of Lower Salem. There were a handful of reports of vehicles being stuck in high water.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.