BERKELEY SPRINGS – In the wake of the historic storm and flooding sustained by Berkeley Springs and parts of Morgan County Saturday night, town and county officals assessed damage and emergency response at a special public meeting Sunday evening at the Morgan County Courthouse.
Present were Delegate Daryl Cowles, R-51st District, Morgan County commissioners, Town of Bath Mayor Susan Webster, Morgan County EMS personnel including Kevin Duckwall, Bath Town Council officials, Morgan County Office of Emergency Services Director Dave Michael, and local residents or merchants. On the phone was Jason Pizatello, liaison for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin.
Michael said it started raining at 3 p.m. and continued until 7 p.m. The National Weather Service reported 6 inches fell in a three- to four-hour period and rain was confined to a small area of the county.
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Journal photo by Edward Marshall
A mound of dirt and debris sits on the side of Fairfax Street Sunday a day after severe flooding in downtown Berkeley Springs. Shop owners say streets and businesses were covered in mud after the flood waters receded.
“The area was 4 miles wide by 10 miles long,” Michael said, “beginning around Great Cacapon and Sir Johns Run west of Berkeley Springs, and continuing through town to New Hope and Highland Ridge areas.”
It was called the “100 Year Flood” for good reason.
“A 100-year flood is judged by the total inches that fall in a 24-hour period,” said Matt Pennington, Chesapeake Bay coordinator for Region 9. “We checked the meter station near Jimstown Road to see the amount of water in Warm Springs Run. At 5 p.m., it was 3.3 cubic feet of water per second. By 5:30, it was 116. Shortly after, the meter kicked off and couldn’t record anymore. We assume it hit 200 cubic feet per second. When it came back online at midnight, it was still at 173. So, we had a 100-year storm in three hours. The chance of that is 1 percent in a year.”
The “flood of the century” took water out of the banks of Warm Springs Run and into Berkeley Springs State Park, Fairfax Street and Washington Street (U.S. 522), up to parts of Mercer and Independence streets, residents said.
Berkeley Springs Volunteer Fire Department Chief Todd Ruppenthal said about 5 feet of water flowed down Washington Street. His personnel directed traffic, closed off many side streets and “shut the town down,” he said. He also said he’d received static from some people for doing so. However, the safety of all was on his mind, he said.
“I saw kids swimming on Washington Street,” Ruppenthal said. He got them out of the water and took it upon himself to manage the situation, in the absence of being able to communicate with town, county or state police.
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IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS
Morgan County Commission:
304-258-8540
Town of Bath: 304-258-1102
Emergency services and police work on a different radio system than the fire department, and his hand-held radios didn’t communicate directly with police. He used Michael’s office of emergency services to try to communicate with police.
Commissioners praised Ruppenthal for taking charge and doing “the right thing.”
Technically, the closing of U.S. 522 should have been under the jurisdiction of the superintendent of highways. But the last superintendent retired, and there is no acting superintendent until a replacement is found. The personnel at DOH’s local office did not have the authority, Commissioner Brenda Hutchinson said.
Michael reported 191 administrative calls and 28 911 trunk line calls were received. Emergency calls ranged from water rescues, reports of gas odors at various locations and fire alarms going off. Another rescue call was for Pollick’s ice cream parlor on Fairfax Street. People were trapped inside by the flood waters against the door.
A shelter was set up at Warm Springs Middle School with the help of local officials and the Red Cross.
Members of the Warm Springs Watershed, Eastern Panhandle Conservation District and USDA Natural Resources Conservation District inspected eight flood control dams Sunday morning. Kate Lehman, president of Warm Springs Watershed, said all dams held and were not breached.
However, Hutchinson said when her family came by a dam near Autumn Acres, water was running over the dam and flooding the roadway. Still, if the dams had not been in place and worked as well as they did, Michael said the flooding in town would have been up to the second stories.
Webster said even though the town’s Berkeley Springs Waterworks plant was shut down, there was plenty of quality water in storage tanks that were undamaged.
“Our water is constantly monitored,” Webster said. “We can’t clean dirty water. We process the quality spring water. So the plant shut down. But there’s no issue with water quality.”
Webster worried about the merchants affected. “I’ve never seen anything like this or heard of anything like this since the flood of 1936,” she said. “The economy isn’t good, and this was an important weekend for our business owners. They lost goods. Furnaces were shot. Basements flooded. They can’t get that business back.”
The fire department, Ruppenthal said, could not pump out basements because they didn’t have the correct working pump, and the Department of Environmental Protection told them it cannot pump out a basement and put waste back into the environment.
People said the water was dirty and everywhere anyway. Instead, one person reported a good samaritan had cleaned out many basements and leveled driveways and alleys on Sunday.
The town of Bath and Morgan County Commission both declared states of emergency. Pizatello, speaking for the governor’s office, said he will also coordinate with state and local officials about any road repairs, disaster aid and cleanup help.
Michael said a team from West Virginia Homeland Security was in Berkeley County assessing wind damage. He hoped Sunday to reach them by today to try to get them to Morgan County. If so, they will go door-to-door to speak to county and town residents affected as well as merchants.
Officials want everyone affected to contact town or county offices and to keep as much documentation and pictures as possible. Townspeople should call town offices for special trash pickup. All were told to call their insurance agents and consult their policies.
Anyone in contact with flood waters or involved in cleanup was urged to get a tetanus shot if their shots are not up to date.
IMPORTANT PHONE NUMBERS
Morgan County Commission:
304-258-8540
Town of Bath: 304-258-1102
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