Severe flooding on Christmas Day caused plenty of damage but no deaths in Kanawha County and the surrounding area, and with more rain predicted for the coming week, first responders are prepared to deal with more flooding fallout.
C.W. Sigman, Kanawha County fire coordinator, spent Friday responding to calls for flooding and water rescues. He said parts of Sissonville seemed to be the hardest hit by the Christmas Day floods, though several parts of Cross Lanes, South Charleston and St. Albans also had problems.
"The area that we saw the most rescues and the most damage so far was on Kanawha Two Mile Creek in Sissonville, on Lotus Drive - we had several fire departments out there, Sissonville and Frame, and they got 12 or more people out, with several more fire departments there to back us up should we have needed it," he said.
Sigman said the water was now cresting below the Elk River's banks, but that the National Weather Service had told first responders to be "on alert" for more rain Monday and Tuesday. Dave Marsalek, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Charleston, said the area can expect more wet weather on Monday or Tuesday, although the weather service cannot yet determine how severe it might be or how it might affect the region.
"We do have a vigorous frontal system coming in, once we get into late Monday night and Tuesday, and that will have a better chance of higher rainfall amounts, but we don't really have model values on that just yet...but that's the next thing we'll be watching in terms of a possibly significant rain maker," Marsalek said. "So we'll get a little time to recover here, but we'll just have to watch closely, because I'm sure the ground is going to stay saturated for a while."
Sigman said the Lotus Drive area is particularly prone to flooding, even when compared to other nearby watersheds.
"Most of the mobile homes, especially ones set up in the last few years, are on very high blocks to get them up out of the flooding, because it's so prone to flooding," he said. "That area seems like it gets hit a lot. Twelve years or so ago, with some of that drainage, out at Rich Oil service station, people were stranded where a rescue encampment was made...two or three people drowned. That area has seen its share of problems."
First responders also performed several water rescues for people whose cars stalled while attempting to drive through high water, Sigman said.
"We encourage people not to drive through flooded roadways," he said. "When I'm working for the county, I drive a four-wheel drive truck that sits really high - I ran into high water yesterday, and I turned around. I follow my own advice - 'turn around and don't drown.'"
Hurricane Mayor Scott Edwards posted a photo on Facebook that showed a car driving through high water, writing "Today I watched this occur. Car after car went through this water."
Edwards wrote that in other parts of the county, first responders were forced to rescue drivers whose cars had stalled out in high water.
"If you choose to do this, please don't have any children with you so they don't perish if you get in big trouble," Edwards wrote. "And for those of you that do, and end up in trouble, go ahead and dial 911. At that point, the county dispatch will call for volunteer fire fighters to leave their families and come out and put their lives on the line for you."
Edwards said Saturday that the majority of the flooding occurred outside Hurricane city limits, and that the water was starting to recede. He said he'd seen several Facebook posts from residents who were celebrating Christmas a day late.
"People are actually celebrating Christmas today, because the water was too high for some of them to get to their families yesterday," he said.
For Sigman, one of the biggest dangers is also one of the most common when dealing with heavy rainfall - wrecks caused by hydroplaning or poor visibility.
"To me, the biggest hazard we had during the whole deal - I was bringing relatives in for Christmas dinner, and it was raining pretty hard on the interstate, and people were driving 80 miles an hour," Sigman said. "I had slowed to below the posted speed limit, and people were going just outrageously high speeds. The Tyler Mountain, Institute and Dunbar fire departments had to respond to several incidents on the interstate where people were driving too fast and wrecking."
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.