Debris Flow — Greenbrier, West Virginia

2015-03-10 · near Whitcomb, Greenbrier, West Virginia

Event narrative

A motorist was driving on Coffman Hill Road in the community of Ronceverte, WV when a mudslide spilled across the road, carrying with it a tree. The tree hit the vehicle, causing the fatality of the motorist. The motorist was the only one in the vehicle.

Wider weather episode

Several days of dry weather allowed rivers and streams to recede before slow-moving low pressure over the Ohio valley lifted north within a broad upper level trough that was pushing into a building subtropical ridge off the southeast U.S. coast. 24-hour rainfall ending 12Z on the 11th was heaviest over the western mountains with amounts ranging from 0.50 to 1 inch in southeast West Virginia. A number of areal Flood Warnings were issued as snowmelt made a considerable contribution to the runoff. The most significant flooding occurred along the Meadow River in Greenbrier County where the river flooded several roads and approached a number of structures in the floodplain. The newly installed IFLOWS gage at Hines (HNEW2) reached 14.9 feet which was above the Minor flood stage of 14 feet for that reach of the river. Parts of Route 60 east of Rainelle were closed by flooding from the river. The extensive snowmelt and rainfall contributed to a landslide near Ronceverte in Greenbrier County that contributed to a fatality. A 68-year old woman was killed when her car was struck by a tree amidst the debris of the landslide on the afternoon of the 10th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.7668, -80.4307)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 555818. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.