Who'll stop the rain?

Even as much of WV tries to muck its way out of the 2016 flood, more rain is hitting the Mountain State. In some areas already hit, flash flood watches have turned to warnings. On the brighter side, the estimated death toll is down to 23 from yesterday's estimate of 25.

Here's some good coverage from the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

For those who want to contribute to flood relief, here are two credible agencies (admittedly out of many others): Catholic Charities and WV VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster).

People who want to get directly involved have been encouraged to register with Volunteer WV rather than self-deploy, although that hasn't stopped plenty of people and groups.

As is almost always the case, the disaster has also brought out the best in many people. I'm reminded of the book  A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disasters by Rebecca Solnit (see earlier Goat Rope post here). Here's one story about how hundreds of people stranded at a shopping plaza in Elkview got treated to an epic cookout by Kroger's employees.

I guess it was another case of making lemon-aid. Or cheeseburgers.

Here's hoping WV gets through the night with minimal additional damage.

Dumb luck

This morning I got an email from a friend up north asking about the storms that devastated West Virginia yesterday. I was able to report that we got really lucky at Goat Rope Farm. We've seen a lot more damage where I live from a lot less rain, but this time around there were enough breaks between storms to let the water go down.

Many others weren't so lucky. Some parts of the state got nine inches of rain in a short time, which is way more than what is needed to kill people, flood out hollers wash out roads and bridges and destroy homes. The death toll from the storm is now 15 and it may go up and it looks like the worst of the damage was done to Richwood in Nicholas County.

You can check out some images of the storm here.

Let's just face it: the skies are getting scarier. And who knows how anybody's luck will hold out.

High water everywhere

As I write this, WV is in the midst of a scary storm, one that reminds me of this Dylan song. It looks like the town of Richwood in Nicholas County is being evacuated as nearby Summit Lake (in which I have nearly drowned several times in a way that seems eerily personal) overflows its banks. Weather like this keeps my eye on the creek and often means being flooded in or power outages. My best wishes to everyone dealing with that.

McDowell County, WV has been hit with other floods, literal and metaphorical. How to respond to one of the latest is the them of the latest Front Porch podcast.

Stay dry, y'all!