Flash Flood — Mcdowell, West Virginia

2001-07-29 · near Countywide, Mcdowell, West Virginia

Event narrative

An unsupervised 3 year old boy ended up in the swollen Jenny Branch. Jenny Branch is a small stream across from his home. The location was on the lower reaches of County Route 7/4 near Davy. The tragedy occurred around 0930-1000E. His body was found in the Tug Fork. Huff Creek in Cyclone washed out private bridges. Flooding occurred along Elkhorn Creek again, but minor, compared to the 8th. Homes in Maitland were surrounded by water from the Tug Fork. Mobile homes were flooded in Anawalt.

Wider weather episode

The last onslaught of heavy July rain fell in waves during Saturday, the 28th, and Sunday, the 29th. The heaviest rain on the 28th was generally from the Charleston vicinity on east, into Nicholas County. Heavier rain fell again on the 29th. The most rain, over these 2 days, fell over the Gauley and Meadow River basins. Rain totals for the 48 hours were 6.1 inches at Mount Nebo, 5.8 inches at Summersville Lake, and 5.5 inches at Richwood. The cooperative observer from Mount Nebo described this event as, "big time flooding". Nicholas County was added to the FEMA disaster declaration 1378. The Meadow River near Mount Lookout crested Sunday evening the 29th at 13.92 feet, about a half foot higher than the old record crest set back on March 7, 1967. The Cranberry River near Richwood crested at 11.09 feet, the highest since August 21, 1989. The record crest there is 12.2 feet, set back on July 19, 1954. During the night of the 29th into the 30th, the lower reaches of the Gauley River at Belva crested at 19.09 feet. That was the highest stage at Belva since the 20.02 feet back on January 29, 1957. On the 30th, the crest passed Charleston, with a stage of 23.6 feet. The runoff from Boone and western Raleigh Counties caused the lower Coal River to crest at 23.1 feet at Tornado. The monthly rain totals for July were 15.15 inches at Hawks Nest State Park in Fayette County. Summersville Lake had 14.7 inches during July. Oak Hill and Richwood both measured around 14.3 inches during the month. Mount Nebo had 13.9 inches, while downtown Beckley received 13.1 inches. Dry Creek of western Raleigh County had a monthly rain total of 11.6 inches.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5261959. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.