Flood in Kanawha County, West Virginia

The flood of record occurred on the lower Elk River around Clendenin. ||Two women died. They were trying to save family heirlooms in the basement of a home in Elkview. In likely their last cell phone contact, 1 of the 2 women described the scene, as like the Titanic. An elderly man also died in his home in Elkview. Another young woman died, but the situation was unknown. | |Both the flash flooding and the river flooding were severe, but the amount of damage from the record river flooding was likely higher in Kanawha County, than the damage from the flash flooding.

Severe flash flooding occurred in the northeastern portion of the county. Streams such as Jordan Creek, Doctors Creek, Thorofare Run, Little Sandy Creek, Wills Creek, and the lower reaches of Big Sandy Creek caused much destruction. ||Little Sandy Creek inundated one large culvert over the only road access to a shopping plaza. The road collapsed. Many shoppers were stranded. About 200 people slept in their vehicles overnight, before walking out on the 24th. ||A 62 year old male drowned along Jordan Creek. He did not leave his home. His small house was washed away. A 47 year old female drowned in her vehicle. She was on a flooded road along Wills Creek.

Small streams started to flood before 0200E. Shortly after 0200E, a vehicle was submerged in Smith Creek and a wrecker was unable to retrieve it. Rocky Fork and Fisher Branch flooded roads northeast of Cross Lanes.||The worst small stream flooding was at the mouth of Paint Creek in the Hansford to Pratt vicinity. However, the rising waters on the Kanawha River compounded the problem. A mobile home park flooded and evacuations were needed. Several cars were also flooded. ||As the afternoon of the 13th wore on, water rescues lingered. People drove their vehicles into flooded low spots along both the Coal and Kanawha Rivers. Some of the high water was backwater flooding up the mouths of small streams, such as Kanawha Two Mile and Davis Creek. One example, was the 4 feet of water in the South Charleston Community Center. ||The Coal River at Tornado crested just over the 25 foot flood stage at 25.5 feet around 0000E on the 14th. The Kanawha River crested at 29 feet around the same time. ||Seven homes in the county were destroyed and 8 homes had major damage.