'Mother Nature at its worst': Flash flood death toll climbs to 6 in West Virginia

WHEELING, W.Va. — The death toll from weekend flooding in West Virginia rose to six as residents tried to clean up with the threat of more rain on the way.

At least two people remained missing in the state's northern panhandle after torrential downpours Saturday night, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said Monday. As much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) of rain fell in parts of Wheeling and Ohio County within 40 minutes. The dead included a 3-year-old child.

About an hour to the southeast, heavy rains battered the Marion County community of Fairmont on Sunday, ripping off the outer wall of an apartment building and damaging bridges and roads. No injuries were reported there.

Morrisey declared a state of emergency in both counties. At least 60 homes, 25 businesses and an estimated 30 roads were impacted by flooding, he said.

"It's just Mother Nature at its worst," Morrisey said.

In the northern panhandle, vehicles were swept into swollen creeks, some people sought safety in trees and a mobile home caught fire. On Sunday, Morrisey toured the small community of Triadelphia, where five died.

''That was just pure devastation,'' he said. ''That was brutal.''

Emergency officials in Wheeling sought cleaning supplies, shovels for mud removal and other donations.

Floods hit ‘like a tsunami'

Rich Templin, his wife Michelle and a family friend were cleaning out two storage garages Monday across the street from their Triadelphia home. The garages situated along ground by Little Wheeling Creek were nearly destroyed by floodwaters. Templin's home on higher ground was untouched.

Templin was at work when his wife trying calling and then texted him to say their street was flooded, a trailer they owned had washed away and ''cars were floating by with people in them.''

Templin said he received the text messages within 15 minutes after the rain began.

''I've talked to numerous people, they said it was like a tsunami. They saw water coming down the road like two or three feet high,'' he said.

Templin used the garages to store tools used in a trucking service company formerly operated by his father.

''We're trying to see what's salvageable and what's not and just start the rebuilding process,'' he said.

Grateful in a time of trouble

Teena Libe moved her truck to higher ground during the storm, but couldn't leave her driveway because a bridge connecting her to the road was severely damaged. Her landlord brought her a generator after she lost electric and water service at her Triadelphia residence.

''The whole entire area within 30 seconds was just underwater,'' she said. ''It's just a really surreal feeling and shocking how just within minutes it was just complete disaster."

Libe said she was grateful that the neighborhood's homes were still standing.

''It just really solidifies the power of nature and how quick your life can just be turned upside down,'' she said.

Rainfall rates are ‘smoking gun'

A stalled weather system that remained over the same location dumped the destructive amount of rainfall.

''It's unbelievable,'' said Marshall Shepherd, director of the atmospheric sciences program at the University of Georgia.

As the atmosphere warms, it is able to hold higher amounts of water vapor that can be unleashed as rain during storms.

''Where the climate change signal is crystal clear to me is the rain rates,'' said Shepherd, noting that 2.5 to 4 inches of rainfall fell in about a half hour. ''That's consistent with a smoking gun that we've seen with climate change in recent decades, that increase in rain intensity.''

Rainfall hitting impervious surfaces like roads contributed to the flooding and stormwater management systems were engineered to handle rainstorms of the past, not the sudden downpours juiced by climate change that are now occurring, Shepherd said.

"In Fairmont, there is about a 1 in a 100 chance in a given year that 2.5 inches of rain will fall in an hour, so the amount of rainfall that occurred in such a short time is a rare occurrence,'' said Brian Tang, an atmospheric science professor at the University at Albany in New York state.

Tang said hilly terrain and soils already saturated from abnormally wet weather contributed to the flash flooding.

''When looking at the statistics of torrential rain events, there is a clear signal that climate change is loading the dice for heavy rainfall,'' Tang said.

A region prone to flooding

The region around Wheeling, about an hour's drive southwest of Pittsburgh, has seen its share of flooding.

Saturday's flooding came 35 years to the day after more than 5 inches (13 centimeters) of rain in less than three hours and killed 26 people and destroyed 80 homes in nearby Shadyside, Ohio.

Last year, severe storms washed out about 200 tombstones at a Wheeling cemetery. There were deadly floods in the region in 2017 and 2022.

___

Associated Press writers Isabella O'Malley in Philadelphia and John Raby in Charleston, West Virginia, contributed to this report.