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You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Why did Dr. Oz lose? well, according to the exit polls, it’s because Fetterman won.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

The words do not have to be perfect.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Infrastructure week. at last.

You are here: Home / Politics / Domestic Politics / Underwater Down Yonder

Underwater Down Yonder

by | 77 Comments

This post is in: 

While we are all occupied with the disaster over there, we have a first rate disaster going on over here in West Virginia:

Twenty people have been killed after powerful storms swamped West Virginia on Thursday night, forcing high water rescues across the state and leaving thousands of customers without power through Friday afternoon, officials said.

The threat of pop-up showers and overflowing rivers was still a concern Friday, and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said that search and rescue efforts remained a priority to help people trapped in flooded-out homes and cars. He said 200 National Guard members have been deployed in eight counties with about 300 more authorized to help with ongoing relief.

The storm system dumped 9 inches of rain on parts of West Virginia and trapped 500 people in a shopping center when a bridge washed out. Dozens of other people had to be plucked off rooftops or rescued as waters quickly rose during the deluge.

The heavy rainfall over six to eight hours prompted the National Weather Service to call it a “one-in-a-thousand-year event.”

“Please continue to work together and support each other as West Virginians always do,” Tomblin pleaded at a news conference where he announced the growing death toll and said about 100 homes have been damaged.

The last I checked, 44 out of 54 counties had been declared a state of emergency. I live in the northern panhandle and am in an area in which the entire eastern seaboard would have to be underwater for me to even be in danger of flooding, but downstate things are just a serious dangerous mess. I used to have to go on flood relief when I was in the National Guard, and I don’t miss it one bit.

And you can guarantee that most of the people who have lost everything will be underinsured or uninsured. In a lot of these old mining towns downstate, flash floods just basically wipe them off the map.

Reader Interactions

77Comments

  1. 1.

    Trentrunner

    All my empathy and sympathy for the family that owns that house:

    But that’s the best goddamn visual metaphor for our global politics right now.

    I need a stiff drink. And I don’t even drink.

  4. 4.

    PaulWartenberg2016

    I used to have family on my mom’s side – Kinzers – living out towards southeast West Virginia, I think nearest Beckley, maybe Charleston. Ever since my grandparents died, I never heard from that side. I wonder if they’re okay.

  6. 6.

    smith

    That video reminds of something I didn’t know until I visited the museum at the site: Many of the casualties in the great Johnstown flood of 1889 actually burned to death, caught in a giant pile of rubble with still-lit wood stoves.

    Flash floods in WV are one of the eternal curses the people there regularly endure. The steep valleys combined with occasional heavy rainfall make them inevitable, but no less tragic for all that.

  8. 8.

    CB

    Just last week I was down in Wayne County doing outreach work. Boy do I believe it when you say something like this could wipe out entire towns. Horrible.

  10. 10.

    humboldtblue

    I can report my Greenbrier county clan is all safe and sound simply because all but two (out of 11) are on the Carolina shore. My niece had to race away from her house this morning as fast moving river water smashed through the basement and started shaking and pushing the structure from its foundations.

    Flash floods are somewhat common in that area but then you get one like today and it can deadly.

  11. 11.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I have a friend here in Atlanta who has family in WV. She showed me photos, before and after shots, of a tractor sitting on her sister’s property, the first freshly painted, the second up to its axles in floodwaters. Sister was trapped at home for several hours. This is down close to the Greenbrier River, I believe.

    John Cole, I hope you and your family and friends and everyone’s animals and property are all safe. We think we’re all so smart about everything, and then some force of nature decides to smack us upside the head with a reminder that “No we are NOT!”

  13. 13.

    Emma

    I’m glad you checked in, John. The news were worrisome. Still are, of course. What a mess.

  14. 14.

    Fair Economist

    20 deaths is pretty grim, and floods cause a lot of heartbreaking property damage. Probably worse than a lot of hurricanes that get a lot more coverage. But another 1 in a 1000 storm? Fossil fuel sure have a price.

  15. 15.

    JPL

    My son was visiting his dad in Friar’s Hill and although his dad house is at the top of a mountain, his driveway got washed out. They lost power and have no idea when it will return though. With help of strangers letting him know which roads were passable, the son returned to the Atlanta area this evening.
    The loss of life is so sad, and hopefully, someone will wake up to the extreme weather patterns.

  17. 17.

    Poopyman

    @efgoldman: Good question. The geography of most of WV being steep-sided valleys where most of the settlements are is why the toll is so high. I’m trying to remember where JR is, and I think he was fairly high up in a valley – or maybe that’s just me hoping so.

  18. 18.

    bago

    I feel fortunate that the worst thing I have to deal with right now is traffic. Thanks Obama!

    (literally. I’m in Seattle too).

  19. 19.

    Mike J

    Just saw NBC’s three minute package on the floods, not once did they say the name of a town or even a county. Just “West Virginia.”

  20. 20.

    Mike J

    @bago: I was surprised he flew into Sea-Tax instead of Boeing, like he usually does. No crowds allowed to approach at Boeing, but there was a rope line at Sea-Tac.

  25. 25.

    Zinsky

    We can thank the geniuses on the right, who in their deep Neadrethal wisdom, have chosen to do nothing as we dump gigatons of carbon pollution in the air and water. Sins of omission can be just as serious as sins of commission.

  26. 26.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @JPL:

    hopefully, someone will wake up to the extreme weather patterns.

    And not that this is at all comparable to floods in WV or drought and fires in CA or 120° in Phoenix, but it seems awfully early in the year for the ATL to be getting the kinds of temps and heat indexes we’ve had recently. Usually the high 90s and occasional three-digit temperatures wait until at least mid-July or August. This is both uncomfortable and worrying.

  27. 27.

    Tracy Ratcliff

    I’ve had many good vacations in Greenbrier county, visiting the Cass Scenic Railroad and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

  28. 28.

    JPL

    @humboldtblue: ex family.. lol My son called yesterday after walking down his dad’s driveway in order to get cell phone coverage. He mentioned that his dad was using the landline to contact other neighbors. My son said he had never seen so much rain, in such a short amount of time.

  29. 29.

    dm

    @Zinsky: Sins of omission can be just as serious as sins of commission.

    Not to mention, in this case, sins of emission.

  30. 30.

    Mnemosyne

    I guess at least people didn’t seem blasé about the blazing house floating past them.

    Meanwhile, here in CA, we have a couple of wildfires because we didn’t get enough rain.

  32. 32.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @Mike J:Happens a lot. When the tornado went through my brother’s house in FL, I had to go to a local affiliate to see what county – since all the news reported was Florida – then surprised to see my brother’s house and my SIL on the front page of the newspaper.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    Also, when I first came to Atlanta, we famously had a LOT of forested areas. In the three decades or so that I have lived here, much of the urban forest has disappeared — a breathing, living sacrifice to the gods of development. You don’t really notice it until you see a bird’s eye view. The trees used to keep us reasonably cool throughout the summer. No longer.

  37. 37.

    MomSense

    Glad you are safe, John. I’m really sorry for all the people who have lost everything and the families who have lost loved ones.

  38. 38.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @dm:

    Sins of omission can be just as serious as sins of commission.

    Not to mention, in this case, sins of emission.

    I applaud your wordplay even as I deplore the reason for it.

  39. 39.

    TheMightyTrowel

    @Mnemosyne: last summer i was doing some archaeology on the east coast of tasmania. We had 1 week in the middle of the field season where the news was equally spilt between major flooding due to a once in 50 years storm event* on the Tasmanian east coast (took out or camp site and swamped the excavation) and unprecedented fires on the west coast because of a shortfall of rain. Tassie is not very big.

    *a second storm of this magnitude just hammered the whole australian eat coat from nsw to tasmania. I guess once in 50 years now means once every 6 months

  41. 41.

    donnah

    My mom has family in Beckley, Whitesville, and just outside of Charleston. One of my cousins is updating her Facebook page with the horrifying images. For a state already in dire financial straits, this is a crushing blow.

    And a “once in a thousand years” storm? Bullsh*t. My aunt and uncle who lived near Whitesville were literally washed clear out of their holler about ten years ago when heavy rains fell consecutive days and flooded the entire area. Sadly, it killed a lot of animals and devastated the area.

  42. 42.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @srv: Too much raping of the Earth going on in both for the profit of a very small few.

  44. 44.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Mike J: Just a big blob of flyover country. Nothing to concern yourself with. Practically uninhabited by the standards of the Village.

  46. 46.

    Timurid

    …and SE WV is full of things… old surface mines/removed mountaintops, tailing piles, retention ponds, etc… that would not react well to a foot of rain in 6 hours.

  47. 47.

    PST

    My wife and I travel often for our respective jobs. We hardly think any more about where on the ground the other is, except home/not home. It’s so easy just to pick up the phone any time to ask a question (do I need to stop at the cleaners?) and then to Face Time in the evening from a restaurant or hotel room. I didn’t realize she was in West Virginia today, and I didn’t know about the storms and floods until after a few texts telling me she’d be delayed. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. She’s safe in Atlanta now. I hope the worst is over and as many as possible are now safe too.

  48. 48.

    SiubhanDuinne

    When I drive to Owen Sound, Ontario, to visit my cousins, about half the time I zip up I-75 which is boring as hell but straightforward and quick. But if time is not a factor, I much prefer to drive up through NC, VA, WV, PA, NY, and enter Ontario at either Buffalo or Niagara. It takes longer and puts more miles on the odometer, but it is infinitely more beautiful. It always kind of stuns me that West Virginia lags in so many metrics, because it is truly one of the friendliest and loveliest states in the country.

  51. 51.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Timurid: Bad news. Not doing much to help mitigate the flow of all that water.

    Huge mudslide in WA state had the same problem…pathetic forestry practices set up the mudslide.

  53. 53.

    kjsbrooklyn

    wow. another 1000 year event. I wish they would connect the dots and say global climate change

  54. 54.

    satby

    Hoping we hear from JR in WV soon and that he and his wife are safe, she has some health issues IIRC.
    @humboldtblue: @JPL: Glad your families are ok, yours too, @ donnah

    And of course also happy our esteemed host, his family, and his critters are all on high ground too.
    Watch out for trees, y’all.

  56. 56.

    satby

    @PST: close call, happy she’s home safe too.

    Maybe John can tell us a good charity to help out his fellow W Virginians because Red Cross isn’t getting a dime from me. Some local group perhaps?

  57. 57.

    Fair Economist

    I forgot – mountaintop removal makes floods worse too. Two ways the fossil fuel folk are screwing over WV.

  58. 58.

    Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism

    @donnah: A thousand year storm is a term of art in hydrologic engineering. It really means that a statistical analysis has determined that there is a 1 in 1000 chance for a storm with a certain number of inches per hour to occur in any given year. The number of inches per hour varies depending on the location.

    The problem is that the analysis is done on historical data gathered at NWS weather stations, and the historical data is leading to underestimations these days.

  59. 59.

    chopper

    that’s some serious rain. hope yall stay safe. fuck global warming right in its fuckin ear.

  61. 61.

    CaseyL

    A house afire floating down a flooded river.. man, is that ever a surreal image.

    When I heard about the floods in WV, I worried, too…so very glad to see John’s checked in.

    Horrible for the people caught in the disaster, though.

  62. 62.

    debbie

    @satby:

    I didn’t see your morning post until a couple hours ago, and I’m holding out hope that things turn out surprisingly well for you. You deserve it.

  63. 63.

    different-church-lady

    “House on Fire Floating Down Flooded Howard’s Creek”

    OK, I might not know much, but I’m almost entirely sure that’s not supposed to be possible…

  64. 64.

    J R in WV

    @efgoldman:

    We’re a little far south-west, and escaped major damage, although there is a damp spot where water just piled up high enough on the roof to allow some to dribble down inside a wall. And the driveway is reported to have some gullying, too.

    We have a reserve pile of gravel if too much washed out of our driveway into the county road. Neighbor living on the farm, sharing the road emailed that he was going to do some grading on the road in the morning. I haven’t driven out, so I’m not sure how bad it was.

    We had enough rain and thunder Wednesday night that it woke me up from a sound sleep. At first I thought part of the noise was the back-up generator running, but not, we never lost power, although the phone was out for 36 hours or so. Drop dead no static, no dial tone, no electricity at all.

    But we were lucky. If we had the amount of rain they had north of us, the other side of Charleston, I would be worried about friend and neighbors all over the county. When we bought this farm, the original farm house was on a knoll. The new house we built in 1991-94 is up the hill some 90 feet of elevation and 900-odd feet north, by tiny mountain-side ephemeral streams that were rushing waterfalls Wednesday night and most of Thursday.

    Thanks, all, for asking about us. I did remark here and there, but never talked about the floods. That burning house floating downstream was something to see. Water and fire… amazing in its horror. Hardly know what to say.

  66. 66.

    Brachiator

    The last I checked, 44 out of 54 counties had been declared a state of emergency.

    Jesus, Mary and Moses!

    My sympathies to all who are affected. Out here in California, there are some hellacious fires, and homes burnt or threatened, but fortunately limited to a relatively small area.

  69. 69.

    Amaranthine RBG

    I fished the Greenbrier, the Gauley and the Cherry two weeks ago.

    Damn. That’s just heartbreaking.

  70. 70.

    The Fat Kate Middleton

    So glad John reported in … but shaken by the news. This is too much like what we went through here in Iowa in 2008. We ourselves were so lucky – even though literally surrounded by flood levels of 32 feet, it never reached our home – and no one died. I was still teaching then, and had so many new students that fall who we called “flood babies”. This sounds worse. I, too, would like to know how we might help.

  72. 72.

    Miss Bianca

    @Catherine D.: I was thinking the same thing, and even tho’ it’s one of my favorite cartoons, I’m not laughing now. Glad to hear that JC is safe!

  73. 73.

    Aleta

    Whew a relief to hear your neighborhood at least is on high ground. Would like to send $ to an animal relief effort and to people relief work when someone can recommend a good direction. So sorry for this hard time for hard luck people.

  75. 75.

    DH

    Grateful to hear you are ok Mr. Cole. If you could suggest a charitable group that we could trust, we would contribute.

  76. 76.

    Elizabelle

    I don’t understand why this isn’t a front page story on the NY Times website. (It’s got a link to a second page.)

    And my sympathies to those who lost their homes and, even worse, friends and loved ones.

    Given the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns, do you think the communities/individuals might resettle and rebuild elsewhere, on higher ground? Maybe the potential for floods has become too dangerous, given West Virginia’s beautiful but sometimes vertical terrain.

  77. 77.

    Betty

    This is one indication that climate change is already happening- not something you can choose whether or not to believe in. Lived through a similar storm last year. It is devastating.

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