FAIRMONT — Damage assessments are now officially underway in Fairmont and Marion County, a week after flash floods swamped basements, submerged roadways and caused the partial collapse of an apartment building.
Local emergency response officials spent Monday touring flood-ravaged areas with representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and West Virginia National Guard.
The guard’s soldiers were among the first responders on the scene – which Adjutant Gen. Jim Seward said he appreciates, both for the response time and the idea of neighbors helping neighbors.
“We have troops and units who can respond from their homes,” the general said last week in Fairmont during an appearance with Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
“I thank the first responders that are here in the community,” the general said, “because that’s where the work happens.”
Close to 170 Army and Air Force guard members from engineering and military police companies have been deployed to both Marion and Ohio counties, Seward said.
The sudden storm on Father’s Day dropped three inches of rain on Fairmont and Marion County in 30 minutes – and it was worse the evening before in Ohio County, where eight people died in the deluge there.
In outlying Marion County as of Friday, Sycamore Hollow Road near Worthington remained the only road closed from the flooding, according to reports from the Division of Highways.
Crews from the West Virginia Conservation Agency have also gone to work on the streams and creeks that jumped their banks while the storm raged.
Meanwhile, the region this week is battening down for weather of a decidedly different kind. Temperatures were expected to crest at a near-record high of 96 Tuesday.
Look for another high of 92 on Wednesday, the forecaster said.
After that, the mercury will make a slight dip into the 80s for the rest of the week, with the threat of thunderstorms ever-present.
